Ray blinked up at the mountain rising before them. Calling it a strange sight would be an understatement.

  The grey edifice towered so high into the clouds and was so wide at its base, it was a wonder he hadn’t ever seen it before. Of course, the Tower Lord had probably gone to extra lengths to make sure it remained hidden until this specific moment.

  Multiple paths led up the mountainside. Each of the teams was starting off on a different path. Moreover, each path was lined with different… obstacles. That was all they could be. Ray was not about go trusting the strange crystals lining the path his team was supposed to take, and he was pretty sure those trees on the path of Sameer’s team weren’t friendly either.

  Ray cast Eternal Pulse.

  [Eternal Pulse—Dungeon]

  Graveyard of Sin [Tier 38]

  Sins are the bane of any civilization. If a race wishes to flourish beyond their limits, their sins are what they must conquer. The ancient Aedians took this rather literally, capturing the demonic spirits of every sin that haunted their kind and chaining them to a singular mountain. Beware the traps these hungry demons lay before you, and beware the traps of your own treacherous heart and soul.

  “Well, if that isn’t the most pleasant description we’ve seen yet,” Ray muttered.

  When questioned, Ray relayed what Eternal Pulse had told him to the others.

  “Demons, huh?” Gritty frowned up the mountainous path. “I can take ‘em.”

  Marcu scoffed. “Is there anything you can’t take?”

  “I can’t take whining.” She held up her fingers, counting them off one by one. “Or people who litter. Or people who say one thing and do another thing. Or—”

  “Alright, alright, I get it, geez.”

  Ray laughed a little.

  Moments later, a booming voice rolled over the entire dungeon island. The air thrummed with vibrations from it, making Ray’s ears twinge a little. He turned, as did everyone else, as the Tower Lord addressed them all.

  “Competitors!” he said. Despite his words emanating from just a screen, it had no trouble reaching every corner of the island. “You have done well to come this far. You have persevered, fought against all odds, and arrived at the final frontier of all you wish to accomplish. Now, all this is left is finding what you desire and taking it. So, go forth and conquer!”

  Several of them cheered. Most of those cheers came from the gathered audience, but Ray couldn’t help feel a shiver running down his spine. This was it. The moment they had all been waiting for. The treasure awaiting them inside could make or break who would win this whole tournament.

  The tournament official’s ringing call came next, and it was finally time to start.

  Ray called on his wings with Aetheric Trace. “Let’s go!”

  The first obstacle appeared before long. They had only travelled up the path for maybe fifty feet before they were swarmed by a gaggle of onrushing monsters.

  [Eternal Pulse—Dungeon Obstacle]

  Demons of Intolerance

  It is easy to judge when surrounded by others of the same kind. Easier still to enforce your view when you have supporters of your own kind reinforcing you. Seek to overcome your inherent need for judgment, no matter how “right” something may seem by virtue of sheer numbers.

  Ray often considered the little information he received about Dungeon Obstacles to be absolutely useless, but this one made was definitely in contention for being the worst. How in the world was he supposed to overcome his inherent need for judgment? Against monsters at that?

  He was also right not to trust those crystals he had seen earlier. Their onrushing assailants were breaking out of them as though they were some sort of egg.

  The demons themselves turned out to be some combination of reptiles and wolves, all scaly and dark. Not like the Sylvan Brighthorns he had seen on the First Floor. No, these were hulking creatures that made Ray think of werewolves, easily twice as tall as him if they wanted to get on their hind legs. Just with heads that would make raptors jealous.

  “You guys read the description of the dungeon obstacle?” Ray asked as their assailants neared. “Any clue what it means?”

  “Nope.” Gritty didn’t seem bothered by that in the least. “Let’s just smash through them.”

  She did so before Ray could reply, jumping at the gaggle of demons with a piercing cry. Blood and bones coated her body. She turned into a ravaging warrior, slashing and smashing into the onrushing demons, throwing them all back and wounding several.

  For a lot of the struck monsters, the wounds looked fatal. They went down, clutching the deep punctures on their chests and backs. Their own purplish-black blood choked them as it emerged from the holes and slashes on their body—Gritty was controlling their blood.

  “It can’t be that easy, right?” Marcus said. “This is supposed to be a Tier 38 dungeon…”

  Ray probably should have clamped his hand over Marcus’s mouth to stop him from jinxing them. Unfortunately, he was too slow. The demons that had been struck, that had been seemingly killed, came back to life pretty quickly. Their wounds closed, the blood choking them fell off, and they rushed in to attack Gritty again, fearless despite having died seconds ago.

  Well, they hadn’t really died. That was probably what made them so fearless in the first place.

  “Uh, I think we need to figure out what the dungeon wants us to do here,” Ray said. “Fast.”

  Marcus nodded. His expression grew grim as he closed his eyes, thinking hard.

  Ray created some constructs to assist Gritty, making sure she didn’t get overwhelmed by the unkillable monsters. Two flying Windbane maws roared to life and rushed in to decimate the reptilian-canine demons alongside Gritty.

  Not that she needed much help. She had already noticed the monsters resurrecting and had switched her approach from killing to restraining. Cages of spiky bones trapped demons everywhere.

  That gave Ray some time to think about the Dungeon Obstacle. This wasn’t just monsters they had to fight past. There was a specific way to navigate this dilemma.

  Seek to overcome your inherent need for judgment, no matter how “right” something may seem by virtue of sheer numbers.

  Virtue of sheer numbers for the demons suggested they would overwhelm Ray’s team if they didn’t fight back. Virtue of sheer numbers for Ray’s team meant they ought to battle through whatever opposition they faced and come out on the other side. But the description suggested to overcome that initial assumption…

  Ray frowned, looking more closely at the inherent situation. Their path was narrow, bounded on one side by the sheer slope of the mountain and on the other side by the drop down below. It wasn’t a fatal drop, not for them, but if they fell, getting back up the mountain would be a tremendous chore. They’d lose precious time, fall behind the other competitors.

  So going through was the only option.

  Marcus opened his eyes, the glint in his gaze suggesting he had come to some conclusion as well. “You thinking what I’m thinking?”

  “I’m thinking we need to force our way through,” Ray said. “Without giving in to the temptation to fight.”

  “That’s actually all I got too.”

  Ray: Gritty, we need to get through these monsters, not fight them.

  Sometimes, Ray wondered if poking someone in chat was less intrusive than randomly yelling in their direction and distracting them that way. He figured he could test that at some point.

  Gritty: You got any idea how?

  Ray: Yeah I think so. Just stop fighting when Marcus and I get to you.

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  He turned to Marcus, who nodded. “Time to push on through. Can you create a barrier?”

  Marcus did so. A golden light warped around them, a hemisphere of warm light enclosing the Ray and his teammate.

  “Just to be sure,” Ray said. “It moves with you, right?”

  Marcus nodded. “How else would the plan work?”

  Ray grinned. “Right you are.”

  They clasped hands. Ray used Temporal Passage next.

  He himself might not have gone next to Gritty, but his constructs had. That counted enough for the purposes of the spell. Of course, teleporting with someone else in tow was a lot more expensive and difficult than if Ray was doing it on his own. But he didn’t mind. Armed with Petrified Vines and a resupply of Aeon Mana crystals, Ray was ready.

  The world twisted, narrowed, shifted. When Ray could see clearly again, they were right in the middle of the furious fray between Gritty and the demons.

  She used the same trapping ability she had moments ago. All the nearest Demons of Intolerance screamed as they were pierced by spears of bone emerging from the ground, locking them in place.

  “Let’s go!” Ray shouted.

  They pushed onwards. The press and gaggle of demons was incredibly thick, of course. They hounded and hemmed them in, attempting to attack from all sides.

  Thankfully, their defence was sure. Marcus’s barrier held strong, the golden light repelling the demons, every monster bouncing off whenever they struck it. Not that many got close enough to do so in the first place.

  Ray’s constructs flew in, belching the demons with chaotic, deep-blue flames. He had also cast Mottling Aeonguard as they moved. While it didn’t form the same kind of barriers as it used to in its previous rendition, it still helped slow down the demons whenever they touched one of the orbs.

  And then there was Gritty. All the blood and bones she had spilled on their path while fighting the demons had come alive under her control. The blood drowned the monsters while the bones attacked them like spears and javelins with a life of their own. They stood no chance.

  Moments later, they were free. Ray’s team passed through and emerged to safety.

  Ray looked back. The demons were still there, undying and growling at them. Numerous and unbeatable. He realized he was actually breathing hard, his slowing heartrate evidence that it had been elevated before without him even noticing. Those demons were something else.

  But the important thing was that they weren’t pursuing Ray’s team any longer.

  “So that’s it?” Marcus asked. His voice was hushed, as though if he spoke too loudly, the demons would come rushing at them again. “We just had to get through the and they won’t even pursue us.”

  “It tracks if you think about what the Obstacle said. Don’t give in to your initial assumption, or something like that.”

  The only thing Ray regretted was the fact that he hadn’t fought the monsters himself. If they kept resurrecting, how much experience could he have farmed off them? Although, he was making another assumption there.

  “Were those things giving you any experience?” Ray asked Gritty.

  She shook her head. “Didn’t matter how many of those things I killed. I got nothing.”

  Well, then Ray’s misgivings had been misplaced. With the demons staying back, they had no reason to hang around, so they moved on. No time to waste when they had no idea what the other teams were facing or how far they had already gone.

  But it wasn’t long before they got their first good idea of the other teams’ experiences.

  As they followed their path, the mountainside opened up some more. This provided some vistas for observing other teams. Far off, on a different winding path up the mountain, another group was being harassed by winged monsters. It was the team closer at the hand that had grabbed Ray’s attention though.

  Sameer, Eliza, and Karkatrix were battling against strange monsters. More demons.

  “You told Eliza, right?” Ray asked, turning to Marcus.

  He frowned. “That’s a really odd thing to bring up in a… normal conversation, you know?” Marcus made a pantomiming face, once again horribly mimicking Ray’s voice. “Hey, have you thought about teaming up with me and the rest of my team that you hate?”

  “Is that a yes or a no, Marcus?”

  He sighed. “I mentioned it, yes.”

  “Good. Then we’ve got a base to step in, because it looks like they might just need some help.”

  Gritty stepped forward, squinting at the battle up ahead where their path crossed the one that Sameer and his team had obviously taken. “What are they even fighting?”

  That was a good question. Obviously, more monsters. But… Ray really couldn’t be sure what they were supposed to be. All three of the opposing team were fighting humanoid figures made entirely of some kind of shadowy substance, little lights running across them in thin lines that reminded Ray of nervous systems.

  The weirdest thing was that the fight was desperate. Ray didn’t get an impression of strength from the monsters, from whatever kind of demons those were, but Sameer and co. were clearly having trouble.

  “Well, time to lend a hand, right?” Marcus said

  Ray grinned. “Aren’t you eager.”

  Marcus actually blushed. His neck turned cherry red. “Fuck off, dude.”

  Then he went ahead to join the battle. Ray and Gritty exchanged a look but weren’t far behind their teammate.

  It was wholly unsurprising that Marcus went straight for the shadowy demon that was fighting against Eliza. Orbs of her time-bending powers struck her opponent repeatedly, and while it eradicated chunks of the monster, the demon just kept reforming the lost pieces of itself as soon as Eliza’s attack ended.

  Ray frowned. Were these things unkillable just like the Demons of Intolerance? Was this whole dungeon filled with immortal demons that they’d have to find novel ways of navigating?

  He sent out Eternal Pulse to check just what they were.

  [Eternal Pulse]

  Demon of Pride [Monster] [Tier 35] [Level 72]

  Pride cometh before the fall, as the old saying goes. The meaning of pride is the meaning of one’s identity. Against these demons, your identity is at stake, for if you relinquish your identity, what are you truly left with?

  Skills:

  Demonic Reflection [Tier 30]: It matters not what sort of foe a Demon of Pride faces. Their strength will always mirror their opponent’s and be enough to overcome it. This ability raises the Tier of all abilities to 2 plus the Tier of the opponent’s strongest ability.

  Reflective Subsistence [Tier 32]: Turn the state of your body to a consistence that can mirror anything. At Tier 32, this ability blocks physical and Mana-based damage by 32%.

  Threads of Control [Tier 31]: Light threads running across and over your body allow you to manoeuvre in and out of the demonic plane as you see fit.

  Cornered [Tier 35]: Increase your physical strength and speed proportional to the number of opponents you are faced with. At Tier 35, this ability raises your potency by an extra 35% for every opponent in the vicinity.

  Demonic Aura [Tier 32]: Unleash the aura of the netherworld to corrupt all energy in your vicinity. At Tier 32, this ability sends out a blast of netherworld corruption up to a range of 32 meters.

  Ray frowned at Gritty. “You didn’t get a Dungeon Obstacle notification, did you?”

  She shook her head. “Maybe we’re not supposed to get one. Maybe this isn’t our fight, which the System recognizes, and we can just move on. Uh, if we can get through them, somehow.”

  Well, that wasn’t going to happen. Marcus had already engaged. He was now trying to fight the demon alongside Eliza, who was shocked at his appearance and had also noted the presence of both Ray and Gritty.

  But they weren’t having much luck. The weird combination of skills in the demon’s list was preventing any of their opponents from landing anything that could actually harm the monsters.

  “Did you read their descriptions?” Ray asked.

  Gritty nodded, a little hesitantly. The excited bloodlust that normally lit her up at the prospect of a fight dimmed a bit. “These things are definitely no joke.”

  “We need to ask them what the actual Obstacle said.”

  Which was what he proceeded to tell Marcus through the System Chat. There was no reply, and Ray saw no sign of him asking anything. Then again, he was part of the battle now. He didn’t exactly have any time to ask.

  “Well, if we want to get past, we’re going to have to get through,” Gritty said. “No time to hesitate, right Wingman?”

  Ray closed his eyes for a second. He was trying to think up a solution without enough information. Gritty was right. They were going to have to jump into the fight if they really wanted to find how to navigate whatever this Dungeon Obstacle was. Annoying they hadn’t received a notification despite now needing to get past it.

  “Let’s go,” he said.

  Just the signal Gritty had been waiting for.

  She rushed in. Unfortunately, she picked the demon that Karkatrix was fighting. The Ryous was surprised at her sudden appearance, though he didn’t react negatively. Then again, Marcus had already foretold the rest of his team’s eventual appearance, so the surprise was muted at best.

  Gritty’s actions were unfortunate because that left Ray to go and help Sameer. Not that the bastard really needed much help. He might not have been able to beat his demonic foe, he at least wasn’t having any trouble protecting himself.

  Portals flashed to life around Sameer, firing off everything from bolts of lightning and scorching fireballs to what looked like poisonous, thorny vines eerily reminiscent of Ray’s own Petrified Vines. A tidal wave erupted free from one portal, another dropping a landslide from overhead.

  The problem was that the demon either dodged it all or simply shrugged it off. Sameer’s attacks were ineffectual.

  Fire and lightning left the merest marks. No real damage. The demon simply pushed through the rocks and water with Reflective Subsistence, trying to get to Sameer physically.

  That was where it failed too. Sameer could simply disappear into one of his portals to appear elsewhere before continuing to barrage the demon with attack after attack. They were, essentially, gridlocked in a very stupid stalemate. And knowing monsters, Ray had a feeling this was a battle of attrition that Sameer could win.

  He paused. Had he actually ever seen monsters running out of Mana before? He couldn’t recall.

  “How long are you going to keep this up?” Ray asked, getting close but not quite close enough to draw the monster’s aggro.

  Sameer responded by aiming a portal at Ray instead of his demonic adversary. A storm of lightning shot out an instant later. Thankfully, Ray had reacted quickly. He cursed Sameer, while simultaneously blessing himself in silence as his Mottling Aeonguard orbs stopped the bolts from reaching him.

  “Really?” Ray said. “That’s the thanks I get after we try to help you?”

  “There’s no helping in a dungeon, you asshole.” Sameer didn’t even look at Ray, just focused on pelting the monster with more and more of his portals. “But stay put. Don’t leave. I’ll kill this pathetic demon and then kill you in short order.”

  “Sure, pal. What did your Dungeon Objective say?”

  “What’s it to you? You—”

  He was forced to stop when the demon charged in, bursting past a bunch of Sameer’s attacks to attack him directly. Reflective Subsistence had allowed it to squeezer through several blasts from multiple portals to strike in with blinding speed.

  Sameer had reacted by throwing himself into one of his portals again. He almost go caught. The demon rushed in, its reaching arms going through the portal to claw at Sameer.

  Then the portal snapped shut.

  The demon drew back. Its missing arm regenerated quite quickly, its dark body liquifying under its stump to reform the limb.

  “It said there’s no escape,” Sameer said when he reappeared from another portal somewhere behind Ray. At least he hadn’t decided to shoot Ray from behind. His eyes were focused on the demon. “The Dungeon Obstacle said even if we ran, the demons would follow. We had to beat them here, no matter what.”

  “Well, that’s good,” Ray said. He cracked his knuckles. “We can help you beat them.”

  Sameer snorted. “You think so?”

  Ray stepped forward. He cast Resurrect Recollect to bring up a flying Windbane. “Yeah. I’ll—”

  A jagged line appeared in space behind the Demon of Pride. Ray blinked as another one came out. Another Demon of Pride, just like the first one fighting Sameer.

  “You didn’t stop to consider why we were fighting exactly three of these things?” Sameer asked. “Well, we were fighting three before you busybodies bullied your way in.”

  Ray turned to see that there were indeed more. Gritty and Marcus were now fighting their own demons, just as Karkatrix and Eliza had been. Were still doing. “Fuck.”