How would I behave right now if I didn’t care what the people around me thought? Adon repeated silently to himself. Assuming that I still care about clearing the dungeon and protecting the Kingdom and all that.

  Adon would still care about those things, he was fairly certain, even if he suddenly stopped caring what the Princess and her family thought of him. Claustria was where he had grown from a little egg into a healthy caterpillar—and from there into a splendid mystic butterfly.

  Be it ever so humble, it was home.

  And when home was threatened, one did not just run or fly away. The proper thing to do was to defend it. Adon knew that without needing to reason through it very much; you could not have anything worth possessing if you were unwilling to defend it. This was a broad universal truth.

  With that principle quietly reestablished, Adon began considering his next move.

  If I don’t care about what anyone else thinks of me, the first thing I need to do is establish my independence from the group, Adon thought. Not that I don’t care what happens to them—far from it, with Goldie, Samson, and Rosslyn here—but I’m not here to follow orders. I’m here on a mission, the same as William or Rosslyn. I want to keep the place where I live safe. And I also want to understand the monsters better—at least understand where they come from and why. I still feel like there’s some kind of mystery here for me to unravel. Otherwise, why did I have those flashbacks to a previous life as a monster when I was in the middle of evolving? I refuse to believe it was all pointless…

  The butterfly quickly hit on a good, simple method to accomplish a little of what he had in mind.

  As he thought about this, his wings gently opened and closed, his body already primed to spring into motion.

  Still, he stayed on Rosslyn’s shoulder for the moment. He allowed himself to be carried along at the same pace as the rest of the group.

  After a couple more minutes, they came to the end of the tunnel. It terminated in a large opening—roughly the same size as the dungeon’s entrance and the passage that had led them here. Both of those spaces had allowed for the members of the party to descend in multiple lines, several people standing abreast, with others walking behind them.

  The only difference between this opening and the dungeon opening was that this one almost completely blocked visibility, despite the fact that there was plenty of light.

  A wall of clear, swiftly running liquid stood immediately in front of the party.

  The entrance to the second level was apparently a waterfall.

  A discussion immediately began among Rosslyn and the young lords about where to go and what to do next.

  “We will probably have to rappel down the sides of this waterfall,” Rosslyn suggested quietly. “Two groups are probably the maximum number that we can afford to lower, one on each side. Since the water will make the descent slippery, we do not want group members stepping on each other’s toes. The strongest would naturally descend first. We could signal for the next group to descend with two sharp tugs on the line leading up here.”

  “I agree that the strongest should descend first,” said William, “but I would suggest we do not bother with the rappels to start with. The three of us can just pour mana into our fingers and descend with our bare hands. Fewer people maximizes our stealth, and if we can scout the territory without being seen, that improves the odds of defeating this level without any loss of life. We should climb directly down through the waterfall instead of moving to the sides. The water itself will give us concealment.”

  Frederick raised an eyebrow at his brother’s plan but said nothing for a moment. Still, Adon heard his thoughts: That sounds like it could very easily kill us, if we lose our grip for a moment and the fall is far enough.

  After a moment, the younger brother spoke up aloud. “I think that if we do that, you and I should descend first, brother. And we should consider using our family’s traditional magic to make the descent more safely.”

  William suddenly looked daggers at his younger brother, and his train of thought gave away why in an instant. Frederick, have you lost your head? After we learned of the mystic beasts’ presence, we agreed we would not show any abilities distinct to our family while we were in this country. We have no idea if the butterfly or the spiders have some power that would allow them to copy magic. If we showed it to them, we might well be handing our secrets directly to the Royal Family of Claustria. All in exchange for getting through a dungeon level a little more quickly.

  That’s interesting, Adon thought. He really believes I could just copy his family’s magic? Could I? I have gotten better and better as a mage. But just learning by watching seems pretty hard. If Rosslyn had not told me what she was doing pretty explicitly when she explained fire magic, would I have been able to just imitate her? I don’t think so…

  Frederick seemed to wither under his brother’s intense gaze, and the younger brother turned to look at the waterfall, shifting his posture into a position of attention locked into a sort of thousand yard stare. Like a subordinate soldier waiting to be reprimanded by a superior officer.

  It was at this point that the butterfly injected himself into the conversation.

  I want to volunteer to scout ahead, Adon sent. As much as anyone else here, I am determined to defeat this dungeon and unlock its mysteries as quickly as possible, with minimal loss of life. For once, I’m the one best suited to perform an important task. As a small butterfly, I can scope out what dangers might exist beyond this entryway much more safely than anyone else. I’ll fly in, zip around until I know what’s up, and then head back and give you all the full details.

  The butterfly felt a strange, warm sensation of pride in his center of mass as he realized that he was not certain he had ever spoken so confidently to a group larger than two people before.

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  Then he felt the emotions of everyone else around him in response to his pronouncement. A distinct haze of doubt leaked from every human present. Well, not every human. Rosslyn’s emotional wavelength was more like concern, which matched Goldie’s energy. Adon was somewhat satisfied to note that the concern from Rosslyn felt sort of muted. She thought he could handle this; she was mostly just surprised that he was offering.

  Adon, are you sure about this? Rosslyn thought.

  “There is no need for you to put yourself at risk, noble butterfly,” William began, speaking in a soft, courteous tone. “We have trained scouts—”

  Do you have a good reason for me to do otherwise? Adon replied instantly—and rather bluntly. He was slightly annoyed at how William pretended to respect him with his spoken words—“noble butterfly”—but had called him a worm in his mind earlier. He knew that aristocracy and royalty were probably obliged to be indirect to some degree—but he himself was not. He had no constituency, no title, no lands. He was not duty-bound to any tradition. We need to move quickly, and no matter how elite you or your knights are, they cannot scout more effectively than a flying insect who can blend in with the environment. Trust me to gather the information we need about our next challenge. Even if there are many things that I cannot do well, flying around without being captured or seen is easy for me.

  There was a sort of rush for Adon. It felt a little like he was speaking his mind for the first time, although that would have been a ridiculous sentiment if he had actually believed that, specifically, was what was happening. Still, there was some sense of liberation. He was ignoring his own desire to be liked and fear of what others would think of him and just saying what he thought made sense.

  Then he felt the emotions from those around him and was relieved that he seemed to be on the right track with the effect he had intended to have. William was cycling through emotions quickly. He had started out surprised, gone to annoyed, and finally arrived at what felt like a grudging respect for Adon’s blunt spoken approach.

  Well, no one can deny your reasoning is sound, Rosslyn thought, giving Adon a little smile from one corner of her lips.

  “We might as well let him go,” she said aloud, trying to sound neutral. “He is correct that his abilities lend well to a stealth mission.”

  William pursed his lips, looking displeased again. But he finally nodded.

  “It does make sense, I suppose. After a fashion…”

  He bit his lip and then made himself smile at Adon.

  Who would spot a worm wriggling its way down the side of the cliff? William thought. A perfect strategy.

  Adon found himself glad, for far from the first time, that he had no face with which to make expressions. He would have given William so many impertinent looks by this point in their acquaintanceship that the young lord would no doubt have challenged him to a duel already.

  Would you like company in your descent, Adon? Goldie sent, the message aimed at the butterfly alone.

  Adon took a moment to think before he replied to her. He would enjoy having some company, but it was likely that she would actually make his mission harder. He did not know if Goldie had practiced Transformation at all. He had never seen her use it in any notable way, and he intended to make himself completely invisible for this entire scouting trip. It really would be a very safe expedition within the expedition, the way he intended to execute it.

  I think I should do this one alone, Goldie, Adon sent. I can become invisible, and—um, well, you can’t do that, can you? We should hang out after I get back, though.

  The spider shook her head slightly. I cannot. Perhaps with practice—but not in time to be useful right now.

  “Well, whenever you are ready, noble butterfly,” William said, tilting his head at the small gap that existed between the stream of liquid from the waterfall and the cliffside.

  Good luck, Adon, Rosslyn thought loudly. She was smiling at him without reservation now.

  You can do it, bro, Samson transmitted.

  Stay safe, Adon, Goldie sent. Stick to the mission as you described it…

  Adon had the distinct sense that Goldie was worried about him, and he had no idea why.

  Do I seem like the kind of guy who takes unnecessary risks? Adon replied a little flippantly.

  Kind of, yes, Rosslyn thought.

  Definitely, Goldie sent.

  Absolutely, no one more than you! Samson sent with great enthusiasm.

  And with those parting words, Adon transformed his body into a smaller, thinner version of itself—he needed to do that to pass through the tiny gap between the waterfall and the cliffside without getting his wings wet.

  He fluttered to just in front of the waterfall, getting as close as he could without getting droplets on his body. Then he hurled himself like a frisbee, spinning sideways through the gap.

  “Are we certain this was prudent?” was the last thing he heard from the others, spoken by Frederick, before the roar of the waterfall cut off the sound of the young lord’s voice.

  Then Adon was in the bright air of the second level’s ecosystem. And it was very well illuminated. The fungi that grew in the space between levels was everywhere here, casting the vast space in gorgeous blue-green light that refracted through the waterfall in gorgeous patterns.

  At first, all he could see was that persistent glow, as his body spun and spun until he struck the cliffside. He bounced forward, then flapped twice and finally righted himself.

  He found that he was staring up at the high vaulted ceiling of this massive underground space, so he reoriented slightly, to have a better view of the ground.

  Far below, he saw where the waterfall came to its terminus, a bubbling pool that was at least a thousand feet down from where he floated, at a middle elevation.

  Beside the pool, a tiny green figure scampered around at ground level. Adon focused his vision on it.

  The green figure was very short, to Adon’s eyes. Perhaps three feet tall.

  Is that a goblin or something? he wondered.

  Whatever it was, the creature turned its head furtively from side to side, as if it knew that Rosslyn and her party was near and was wary of being suddenly killed. Then it grabbed for one of the glowing mushrooms.

  Only a single, piercing shriek alerted Adon before the attack came.

  Then a grayish white, feathered blur ripped the goblin in half.

  Adon immediately checked to make certain that he had rendered himself invisible. He found that he had done it reflexively, perhaps even before he stopped spinning after passing out from behind the waterfall. Not a moment too soon.

  The menace of the second level had arrived, and this beast could fly.