Alisanne paced back and forth outside the Toybox the next morning, her clubs in her hands and her heart racing. She’d slept well the night before and had felt good upon waking, but now that her run was imminent she found herself growing more anxious with each passing second.

  Taking deep breaths didn’t help, nor did counting to a hundred, thinking of the people around her in their underwear, or any of the other idiotic tricks she’d been taught for managing her nerves since she was a child. Every step, every passing second, every run that ended in success or failure – as judged by the chorus of cheers and jeers coming from somewhere close by – spiked her stress levels and left her wondering how close she was to the point where she might as well go find a bar and throw down a few drinks before going into the dungeon. If she was guaranteed to lose anyway she might as well feel good doing it.

  She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts, and saw a trio of well-dressed people carrying clipboards walk past. They were involved in some sort of serious conversation, and Alisanne only heard snippets of what they were saying. However, given the way they talked about “bigger circuits”, “a painful lack of star power”, “no way the bosses will be happy if we add these losers to our stables”, she inferred that they were dungeon sport [Scouts], or possibly even [Agents] who were there on the lookout for new talent.

  [Scouts] and [Agents]. Like anyone who hung out in the adventurer’s guild and participated in dungeon runs knew, these were the secret People Who Made Things Happen. Like [Cosmic Forgemasters], they gave birth to stars – albeit of a different variety – and were as ruthless as bloodthirsty sharks. They were secretive, quasi-mystical beings, who wrote strange symbols that were indistinguishable from the runes of any [Wizard] and were blessed with vision unlike that of regular people. Unlike [Prophets] or [Fortune Tellers], who merely saw the future, [Agents] and [Scouts] shaped it.

  Alisanne nearly broke out into laughter. Thirty seconds before she’d thought her stress levels had been as high as it was possible for them to go. Oh, how wrong she’d been!

  Fighting back the urge to go find a nice quiet alley somewhere to master the art of projectile vomiting – why wasn’t that a skill in any of her manuals?! – Alisanne watched the [Scouts] and/or [Agents] talk to a few adventurers outside the dungeon.

  She nearly jumped out of her skin when somebody tapped her on the shoulder and turned around as quickly as she could.

  A small, slightly overweight man with spiky black hair was standing in front of her with a big grin on his face and a business card in his hands.

  “Hello, miss,” he said in a somewhat raspy voice. “Are you Alisanne Henret by chance? From Oar’s Crest?”

  Alisanne nodded.

  “My name is Doyle Nimaton,” the man said, “and I’m a Probationary [Agent] from Colmere. My agency represents Pierre St. Drod, another adventurer from your city.”

  He paused, as if expecting Alisanne to know who that was, and then doubled down by hopefully adding, “You know, the [Balloonbarian]? Master of the [Popsplosive Mace]?! He’s the number three adventurer in the Colmere Bronze dungeon circuit.”

  Alisanne nodded awkwardly. None of that was ringing any bells. “That’s…quite good?”

  Doyle deflated ever so slightly, his shoulders drooping for a split second before he rallied. “Indeed! Pierre has been one of our best adventurers and he’s got a bright career ahead of him, no doubt. I’m sure he’ll be a household name across the continent in a year or so. Anyways, the reason I’m here today is to look for more promising talent, and my boss and I believe Oar’s Crest is a veritable untapped mine of potentially great adventurers. As such, I’ll be watching your run with great interest! Should you emerge victorious, perhaps we can talk further about other circuit opportunities and events in the future!”

  Once again he fell silent, and Alisanne was proud of herself for not punching him then and there. Instead, she clenched her jaw into what she hoped was a smile and forced herself to nod as she tucked his card into her pocket.

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” she said, surprised by how stiff her voice sounded in her ears.

  “Excellent! Best of luck on your run!”

  Alisanne watched the Probationary [Agent] walk away, cursing him under her breath for going ahead and adding even more expectation to her shoulders before she went into the Toy Box. Of course she wanted to emerge victorious from the stupid dungeon, but now she felt extra obligated, and that sucked!

  At least the frustration elbowed some of the nervousness out of her mind, and when it was finally her turn to enter the dungeon Alisanne walked in with her head held high. The wait was over; her nerves would be back to normal as soon as she was four strikes into a combo on some monster trying to knock her out.

  Gawain please, let there be some monster trying to do that in the first room.

  She took the offered {Golem Core} from the [Dungeon Attendant] – a surly young kitrekin who absolutely did not look like he wanted to be there – and stepped inside. It was a small crystal cube, covered in carved, glowing symbols. It was heavier than its size would have otherwise suggested, and while Alisanne wouldn’t have ever dared do so, seemed sturdy enough to resist breaking if she threw it on the ground with all her strength.

  The heavy door shut behind her and locked, followed a second later by a series of golden crystals coming to life one after another. Alisanne looked from left to right. She was in a small, circular room, and the way the ground beneath her boots looked reminded her of a clock.

  Alas, there was no monster here to fight, but just like [Dungeon Master] Sureclaw had explained there were three empty golem bodies in the center of the room. One was humanoid, one looked like a dog or big cat, and one was wayyyy too reminiscent of a spider for Alisanne’s tastes. She ruled that one out entirely before she even went and looked at the plaques in front of each.

  The humanoid model was named ‘The Wanderer’, and it was apparently the Strength golem. It had ten points of that, and only one point of Speed and Durability each. The dog – Alisanne liked dogs more than cats – model was ‘The Follower’, and its stat spread was the same as the Wanderer’s, albeit biased toward Durability instead of Strength. The spider, also known as ‘The Hunter’ was instead focused on Speed, and above them all was a sign with some more food for thought.

  It said:

  There are many rooms inside the Toy Box, many games you can choose to play

  But it’s up to you to decide which of these golems makes you say

  ‘This is who I choo, even if it’s not who I’ll always be, for right now

  This is the closest one to me’

  So are you Strong, or are you Quick, or can you take a Hit?

  Do you like to fight? Trust your sight? Or are you full of Wit?

  Choose now, wisely!

  Choose now, pick!

  Alisanne read the poem twice more, trying to see if there was some sort of hint hiding in the number of capitalized letters or some other such nonsense – she’d seen such things many times in various Alrick novels – but if there was it eluded her.

  Deciding that she wasn’t missing any sort of obvious message in the text, Alisanne looked at the three – or more realistically, two – golem options and thought about which one to pick. Was she more of a Strength person or a Durability person? What did those even properly mean? Did it even matter? The guide hadn’t made any real differences between the golems clear, and she suspected that she was partially, if not mostly, simply choosing for aesthetic reasons.

  In that case, it was a no-brainer: she picked the Follower golem and inserted the core into the perfectly sized slot on the creature’s back. It socketed into place with a satisfying snap and the golem shuddered to life. At the same time, the floor beneath her rumbled and the walls began to spin, revealing a door that hadn’t previously been there.

  Alisanne looked into the golem’s dark, dull eyes, and motioned for it to follow her as she started walking toward the newly visible door.

  It stayed put, and Alisanne swore. Right, it needed verbal directions.

  “Alright, follow me and stay close,” she said.

  The golem crossed the distance between them in a few leaping steps, stopping when it was a mere few inches away from her back.

  “Not that close,” Alisanne said. “Back up a bit.”

  It scooted back another few inches, and Alisanne realized that she was going to have to be a lot more specific if she didn’t want to lose her mind dealing with this thing.

  “Keep going. Make sure that there’s a few feet – no, make that six to ten feet of distance between us at all times unless the layout or threats of a given room make that impossible.”

  The golem didn’t respond or react, but it did as she asked.

  Readying her clubs for anything, Alisanne opened the door to the next room of the Toy Box and stepped through it. She was greeted immediately by a pair of wooden humanoids wielding wooden axes and trying to split her in half with them with heavy overhead strikes.

  Sidestepping one blow, and then the other, Alisanne activated [Kinetic Tempo] and lunged forward, striking back with her clubs as best she could. Her blows bounced off the bodies of her foes, and she slid around to the nearer foes back to try and knock them down.

  As she did so, a panel on the creature’s back fell open, and a boxing glove on a spring shot out and hit her squarely between the eyes. Alisanne fell back, swearing.

  A quick check with her hand confirmed that her nose was indeed bleeding, but it didn’t seem broken and Alisanne wiped herself off the best she could as she dodged another strike and got back to her feet.

  This was most definitely not starting off all that well, she thought, raising her clubs and trying to think up a strategy to take down the creatures. Maybe she could sweep their legs or something?

  Standing a few feet apart, they moved toward her again with their weapons raised and ready. Something about the space between them gave Alisanne an idea.

  Instead of backing up, as her first instinct urged her to do, she ran forward and stood between her enemies. As expected, they both turned toward her and brought their weapons down with terrifying speed.

  Of course, since they were both standing in the way of the other’s blows, their axes did Alisanne’s work for her. The creatures collapsed to the ground, their heads nearly split in two.

  The room rumbled, and a small bed with three different wooden heads appeared on the far side. Alisanne walked over to it, and saw each of them offered different stats.

  The first offered three additional points of Durability, the second offered two but also included a point of Strength, and the third offered one point of Durability, Strength, and Speed. Alisanne grabbed the first one, thought it over a bit more, and then grabbed the one that offered all three stats instead. The way she figured it, she was likely to need combinations of different stats as she went through the dungeon, and would only be hurting herself by focusing only on Durability. Everyone knew that people who spent all their time and energy maximizing just one stat came to bad ends, and while dungeons were not real life Alisanne suspected that some similar principles still applied.

  “Would you like to install that part on your golem?” a voice from the ceiling asked, and Alisanne nodded.

  “In that case, press the button next to the hammer symbol and stay calm. You will not be in any danger until you enter the next room.”

  Alisanne did as instructed, and a loud beeping sound came from the bed. Her golem walked over to it and lay down, like it was going to take a little nap. A pair of wooden hands swung down from the ceiling, and yanked her golem’s head off with absolutely zero hesitation or ceremony. It popped the new head back on and twisted it, retreating into the sky when the job was done.

  A few moments later, the golem stood back up and returned to its place a few feet away from Alisanne and they continued on.

  The second room was much like the first in terms of design, but this time Alisanne found herself beset by a half dozen wooden rats that were nearly half her height. They rolled around on wheels, and Alisnne defeated them by leading them to the large circles on the floor, which were pressure plates and dropped large cages down onto them.

  Her reward was a choice between six different paw pieces, which added the new dimension of parts containing negative stat modifiers like the one that would have offered her five points of Speed in exchange for giving up four points of Durability.

  There were also two parts that offered three points of Durability for a cost of three points of Strength or Speed, respectively.

  Alisanne looked up at the ceiling. “Uh, can I ask a question? What happens if my golem goes negative on any given stat?”

  “Golems are not allowed to drop below zero points on any of their three stats,” the voice answered. “Otherwise they will cease to function.”

  Crud. She’d figured it would have been something like that, but it still wasn’t good to hear. Feeling somewhat paranoid and committing herself to only picking parts with a downside of the upside really justified it, Alisanne selected a part that gave her another point in Durability and Strength, had it installed, and continued on.

  The third room was filled with hanging ladders that swung back and forth like pendulums in all directions, and the floor was covered by a series of orange-tipped pillars. Alisanne remembered that such things were “instant kill” hazards – she’d heard plenty of complaining about them back in Oar’s Crest, when [Dungeon Master] Vales had added some to Crestheart – and so she stood still for some time, watching the ladders swing back and forth.

  On the far side of the room was a big green button, and it was pretty obvious that her job was to get across without touching the de facto spikes. Given the number of swinging ladders, there were a ton of different “paths” that she could follow to do such a thing, but eventually Alisanne found one that only required her to ride on three different ladders instead of four or five.

  Jumping from one swinging thing to another was pretty common in dungeons, so Alisanne wasn’t particularly scared as she tucked her clubs away and raised her arms overhead to wait for the ladder she wanted to catch. She’d done similar things dozens of times before, and was confident in both her grip strength and her endurance to make it across.

  The ladder rung felt good in her hands when she grabbed it, and other than a moment of discomfort as her feet were lifted off the ground, Alisanne felt fine as the ladder swung upwards. However, when it reached the apex of its rise, Alisanne saw something up near the ceiling that made her wonder if her plan was really wise. Small dark spheres were suspended by wires there, and there was something about the way they swayed back and forth that made Alisanne suspicious.

  Instead of simply moving forward and hoping for the best, Alisanne began climbing the ladder. It was much harder than it would have otherwise been on account of the swinging, but Alisanne managed to pull herself up until she saw that she was close to a platform that hadn’t been visible from the ground.

  Jumping free, Alisanne caught the platform’s edge and held on for what felt like a long time before pulling herself up. She silently thanked the older adventurers back home who’d stressed that nothing but a complete mastery of one’s own bodyweight would suffice when it came to navigating dungeons. It was shocking how often an adventurer ended up dangling over a cliff, they said, and Alisanne couldn’t help but be amazed that they’d been so right.

  She took some time to rest and catch her breath, then got back up and walked across the platform. The hanging sphere closest to her started vibrating, and when she was only a few feet away its cord snapped.

  Pieces of wood whirling and twirling, the sphere turned into a convincing bat-thing and flew towards her. Alisanne reacted quickly and yanked her clubs free. Thankfully, the ability to transform appeared to come with a cost for the bat; it was flimsy and broke under the impact of a few solid blows.

  Moving slowly, Alisanne moved forward, dealing with each bat one by one. The platform she was on went all the way to the far side of the room, and Alisanne saw that with a bit of creative acrobatics, she could maybe find a way down to the ground without the need to go all the way back and use the ladders to cross as she’d originally planned. That was a relief.

  Some classes had a skill for sliding down walls – it was, aptly, named [Wall Slide] – but [Fighter] was not one of them. What it did have, though, was [Steady Legs], which meant that so long as she crossed her clubs in front of her body as she went through said acrobatics she could improve her balance and hopefully avoid falling or injury.

  That did mean she’d have to jump off the platform though, and so after activating her skill, Alisanne put her best foot forward and went for it.

  She hit the wall and twisted, her legs barely registering the impact, and launched herself at the nearest ladder. This too she kicked herself away from, hoping to arrest some of her downward momentum. Unfortunately she’d misjudged her angle a little bit so it didn’t do as much as she’d originally hoped, but from the ladderside Alisanne was able to fall to the ground without getting hurt. Nor did she hit any of the instant kill pillars, so her plan had worked as far as she’d been concerned.

  Hitting the button caused all the pillars to retreat into the ground, and stopped the ladders from swinging as well. It also revealed another platform with a treasure chest inside it, and Alisanne collected a small wooden statue for her troubles.

  The statue was marked with a tag that said “Your golem can carry this statue for you, and it can be exchanged for ten silver fleurs at the dungeon office following the completion of your run.”

  Huh. That was nifty. Alisanne waited for her golem to make its way across the now-clear floor and held the statue out. A door in the creature’s chest opened up and Alisanne set the statue inside. Judging by how much space there was still in there, it seemed that there were lots of opportunities to earn fleurs in this dungeon, which was great.

  No golem parts appeared though, which wasn’t all that big of a deal. Alisanne was sure that she’d find more in the rooms to come.

  Looking once more at the unconventional path she’d taken to cross the room and feeling proud of herself, Alisanne smiled and shook her head. Her legs felt a little tired, but she was still fresh enough to press on through the next door.

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  It led to a long hallway, and as Alisanned walked its length the sound of a ticking clock began to echo through the air. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

  Well, nothing ominous about that or anything! Alisanne readied her clubs and looked around in every direction. Up, down, left, right. She even looked behind her, but other than her golem there was nothing concerning that she could see. The walls weren’t moving, no trap doors were appearing, and Alisanne saw nothing else that indicated any sort of threat.

  Apparently this was just one of those “rest and recover” hallways, and while Alisanne remained alert until she reached the end, she encountered no threats.

  There were, however, three doors waiting for her. One was red, one was green, and one was blue. Other than that nothing differentiated them, and so Alisanne chose the green one – which was in the middle – and went through it.

  By the end of the first floor, Alisanne’s head was starting to hurt. Partially because every room required her to think about the optimal way to solve it instead of simply beating up monsters until a door opened, and partially because in the floor’s final room her efforts to defeat a big rolling golem had resulted in her receiving several heavy blows to the skull.

  She’d been Dizzy for a few minutes, but the status effect had worn off and she’d made her way to the towering lift that would take her up to the dungeon’s second floor.

  She’d even earned an additional point of Wit for her troubles.

  Her golem was behind her, its shape similar to what it’d been when she’d first started her run but with a few subtle differences. The head she’d swapped after the first room had been swapped again, this time for a head that offered more Durability while maintaining its additional Strength and Speed. She’d swapped its legs for better versions – though she’d lost two especially promising pieces in a room filled with swinging pendulums. A hefty bit of acrobatics had been enough for Alisanne to get through without issues but her golem simply hadn’t been fast enough to avoid them. It’d taken her another four rooms to get replacements that were even close to the parts she’d lost.

  All told, her golem now had sixteen points of Durability, five points of Strength, and three points of Speed. Alisanne wasn’t sure if that was good or bad, since there’d been some rooms with doors that she couldn’t open. She suspected that the doors led to other rooms with better parts and potentially more loot. Other than the one statue she’d found, she had yet to come across any other treasure.

  Maybe the second floor would be better.

  Up ahead there was yet another lift, and Alisanne stepped onto it before directing her golem to follow. A humming moment later the platform lurched to life, and Alisanne was steadily carried up to the second floor.

  It was a pleasant ride, the movement of the lift itself perfectly smooth and steady. Alisanne sunk into a crouch to rest, reveling in the sensation of relief.

  There wasn’t much to look at inside the chute, but the perfectly clear windows all around did provide an amazing sight. Through them Alisanne could see the entirety of Yew’s Rise stretching out in every direction. What a view it was, with the buildings tucked neatly into their spaces and all the citizens and visitors moving around like tiny ants.

  Alisanne smiled. It really was a pretty city, and the [Fighter] knew that she wanted to come back again someday. Maybe with her family. Her ma and pa would love the shops and industry, and her little brother would think the golems were the coolest thing in the world.

  The lift came to a stop, and with it Alisanne’s thoughts. She could fantasize about family trips some other time; right now she had a run to win.

  A kitrekin dressed in fancy black and white clothes was waiting for her on the second floor. He was sitting at a small desk, reading a newspaper with a pot of coffee next to him and a bunch of items for sale on the table.

  “Welcome to the second floor,” he said nonchalantly as Alisanne approached. “These products are for sale if you’re so inclined.”

  Well, his service left much to be desired, but Alisanne seriously looked at his wares all the same. Most adventurers in the Oar’s Crest guild branch recommended buying at least a few supplements in any given dungeon run. The costs were usually minimal relative to the gains they could provide if the adventurer knew what they were doing.

  Everything here cost ten silver fleurs, so Alisanne went ahead and bought two things since one was effectively free on account of the statue inside her golem. If she found a similar object before the end of her run she’d break even, and that seemed like a reasonable

  The first item she bought was a small jar of golden syrup mixed with a few sprigs of herbs. The description card said it was good for recovery, and Alisnane certainly felt better after eating the contents, using her finger as a spoon.

  The second item Alisanne bought was a small vial filled with a dose of Power Potion, which would give her some extra hitting power for a few minutes after taking it. She’d keep it for the boss, in the hopes that it could counteract some of the fatigue she’d invariably build up by making her way over there.

  Tucking the potion into her belt, Alisanne bid the kitrekin a good day and headed into the next room.

  Inside were three slowly rotating wooden circles, with a big spire in the center connected to a set of pedals, wheels and pulleys that looked too big for her to comfortably use but were probably the perfect size for her golem.

  It was eerily peaceful and quiet as she directed the golem to use the pedals, which caused all three circles to start moving. They were slow, awkward things, but it looked like they were moving toward stacking atop each other, and would form a cylinder of their own in a few seconds.

  About a third of the way in, the trouble started. Tons of small wooden creatures with triangular heads and spherical bodies popped out of the ground and started swarming. They carried tiny pitchforks tipped with a strange blue metal and made loud squealing noises as they approached.

  As they got close, a voice from the ceiling thundered, “Protect the spire!”

  Now, generally speaking, that was the strict opposite of Alisanne’s first instincts related to spires, and she was ironclad in that belief. However, the fact that this was a dungeon run forced her hand and she settled into a crouch with her clubs raised to protect her golem until it finished what it was doing.

  The little pests were annoying but not particularly hard to deal with; Alisanne swept them away by the dozen with every stroke. A few managed to slip by her attention, getting onto her golem’s back and stopping its progress entirely until she knocked them away.

  Once, when dealing with a large swarm of slightly bigger golems – the foes came in waves, and their sizes varied from one wave to the next – a pair of enemies got onto her golem’s back and started stabbing it with their weapons. At first Alisanne didn’t think much of it, intending to handle the foes first and then go and remove them, but then she noticed that with every few stabs her golem took she actually lost progress on getting the circles to align properly, and so that was the end of that.

  After what felt like an eternity – especially the last bit, which by itself seemed to go as long as the rest of the room up until that point – the three circles were aligned and the room was filled with a great burst of golden light.

  All the enemy golems were gone after that, and two different golem pieces were waiting for her next to the spire. One offered four more points of Durability at the expense of one point of Strength, and the other offered no stat changes but would let her golem use a [Tackle] skill.

  The points were nice, but so far Alisanne hadn’t needed them for much of anything, so she chose the second option and waited for it to install.

  When it was done, she directed her golem to use its new skill, and was pleasantly surprised by how quick and far it moved when it did so. Maybe she’d be able to use it if she encountered another room that required quick movements. After all, her golem wasn’t going to be getting many points of Speed any time soon.

  The next few rooms were blessedly straightforward, simply a series of fights against various wooden minions that she had no trouble defeating with her usual tactics. It was refreshing to be freed from the constant stream of mental challenges that the toy box had given her so far, and Alisanne relished the straightforward demands of combat.

  With each success, Alisanne further upgraded her golem. She swapped out its head twice, its legs three times, and even added a tail that gave it another two points of Speed. Unfortunately, her decision to balance the golem’s stats came back to bite her when she found a treasure chest that required 20 points of Durability to open.

  It really was a nice touch, Alisanne thought, that all the thresholds inside the dungeon were based on the template the adventurer picked to start. It hurt to not be able to get into the chest and collect what was inside, but it would have been painful and frustrating if she’d found one that wanted a golem focused on Strength or Speed instead.

  In addition to chests that had stat requirements, the second floor also introduced doors that did as well. Here Alisanne’s instinct toward balance was rewarded: no fewer than four times did she find doors with requirements for all three golem stats that she barely met, though traveling through said doors didn’t seem to be meaningfully different from the other doors she’d already gone through.

  One such room did yield another bit of treasure, which was apparently worth five silver fleurs. Alisanne tucked it into her golem’s stomach and pressed on.

  After another room that required her to build stacks of blocks to climb from one platform to the next and down again, Alisanne took a short break. There were a pair of doors ahead of her, with one leading further into the second floor and the other apparently leading to the third floor and the boss fight.

  Alisanne took a few deep breaths and stretched. Part of her wanted to keep exploring the dungeon in the hopes of finding some more treasure, but she had to be mindful of her physical condition as well. Her arms were aching and her legs felt heavy; she’d do herself no favors if she failed her run here in an attempt to get a little more in the way of rewards.

  The wisest course of action was to simply head up to the boss now, she decided. Knowing her body and its limits was just good adventuring, and there was that [Agent] who said he’d want to talk to her further if she won.

  She was curious about what he had to say, so she took a deep breath and headed up to the third floor.

  On the lift up to the big arena, Alisanne pulled the little potion she’d bought from the second floor vendor out of her pocket and popped the cork. She’d drink it just before the battle began in the hopes that she’d be able to get some value out of it before it wore off. That was easier and better than fumbling around in the middle of a fight trying to find time or space to drink.

  She didn’t know much about the dungeon’s boss. It wasn’t a proper [Dungeon Champion], but was apparently some sort of amalgamation golem made up of a dozen different parts. Her guide hadn’t gone into any more specifics than that, but it was better than nothing.

  At least the mood was fitting for a boss battle, she thought, when the air was filled with loud and aggressive cello music. Bobbing her head to the beat, Alisanne got off the lift and swallowed her potion in a single sip. She carefully set the empty bottle down on the ground and continued walking, keeping an eye out for any sort of threat that might be the boss.

  The arena was a big pentagon, and judging by the walls and ceiling – which all had plenty of platforms, staircases, rope bridges, and other things to stand or climb on – Alisanne assumed that she’d be tasked with fighting an enemy that liked to climb and jump around. That was bad news for a tired adventurer, but Alisanne had no choice but to do her best.

  There were also several smaller versions of the spires she’d dealt with earlier, so it was likely she’d also have to protect her golem several times. What a joy that was sure to be.

  The cellos grew louder and Alisanne stopped near the center of the arena. Her heart was racing, equal parts nerves and excitement at the prospect of being so close to defeating another dungeon. She was so close to victory, she could taste it.

  Ports in the ceiling and floor opened, and too many harpoons pulling ropes to count exploded out. They were no danger to Alisanne, following their trajectories to a series of black cubes where they were safely anchored in place, but the [Fighter] felt her stomach drop at the sight of them.

  She was surrounded by what looked like a web, and in her experience things that looked like webs brought things that looked like spiders.

  A moment later, her suspicions were partially borne true when another large door in the ceiling opened and a massive beetle-golem shimmied down the nearest rope. Its body was a mixture of black, gold, and amber wood, and some of its pieces were engraved with runes or socketed with gems. Its eyes shimmered, each one a different precious stone, and Alisanne readied her clubs, crossing them in front of her body so that she could activate [Steady Legs] right away.

  The beetle landed on the ground in front of her, and Allisanne got a better look at its body, which towered over her. The seams between each part stood out enough to draw her attention, and upon closer counting she saw that there were four pieces of each color. There were also plenty of sharp-looking wooden bits tucked away, and Alisanne suspected that a beetle wasn’t the only shape this golem could take.

  “And now, the final spectacle of this run,” a loud voice shouted, echoing through the arena. “Alisanne Henret, versus the amalgamation golem! Dungeon boss battle, begin!”

  The beetle lunged forward, revealing a pair of nasty wooden fangs that looked plenty sharp. Alisanne danced back, not wanting to get into a contest of strength against something so much bigger than she was. Even bolstered by the potion she doubted she’d have much of a chance of winning.

  Her foe landed hard and froze, gears along its back and legs twisting and turning as if resetting. That was good to know. The golem was apparently capable of great speed, but maybe it needed time to reset itself after committing to a big attack.

  If so, maybe she could interrupt it and buy herself some more time.

  “Golem, [Tackle] the enemy!” she called, deactivating [Steady Legs] and running to the side of the boss. Her golem’s skill wasn’t particularly useful, but maybe it’d be enough to do what she needed.

  The beetle shuddered under the force of impact from Alisanne’s golem, and the [Fighter] took advantage of the delay to get close to one of its legs and swing as hard as she could. Unfortunately her blow failed to dislodge the piece she was aiming for, and she had to jump away from its counter attack, which was another one of those spring-loaded gloves she’d faced earlier.

  Knocking her golem away, the beedle got back up and attacked again, this time moving in a diagonal line three times and stabbing forward with its fangs each time. Alisanne dodged each of them, then jumped up onto the beetle’s back and started looking for something to hit. She struck every part she could, hoping to find one that was loose enough to knock free, but none of them so much as budged.

  Hmm, that was annoying, but thinking logically that also meant that there was some sort of gimmick she had to satisfy to get the boss to a point where she could “hurt” it.

  But what might that be?

  She hopped off the beetle’s back and started looking around. There had to be some sort of sign – a mark, or a strangely colored tile on the floor, or a symbol that didn’t quite match the rest of its kind – for what she was supposed to do next.

  The beetle got up onto the nearest rope and started climbing. Once it was up in the rope web, it chased Alisanne by leaping from one rope to another, and that was when Alisanne noticed the giant red circle on the creature’s stomach.

  She slowed to a stop and waited until the boss was right above her head. When that happened, she took aim, pulled back her arm, and activated [Club Toss]. Her weapon spun through the air and landed right on target.

  A loud shriek filled the air, and the golem fell off its rope and landed hard on its back. Alisanne let out a sigh of relief; the creature’s fall had been an attack of its own, and she’d only barely gotten out of the way in time.

  This time when she leaped up onto it and started hitting, she saw results. The beetle started separating into two pieces, but she didn’t manage to break it apart by the time it flipped back over.

  Baiting the creature up onto the ropes again took a bit longer than it had the first time, but that was fine. Alisanne needed to pick up her club again anyways, which she did manage thanks to another well-timed [Tackle] from her golem.

  The second time through the [Club Toss] to beating on the golem’s underside loop it separated into three parts, and Alisanne found herself wondering if she’d just made life easier or harder on herself when she found herself facing three golems.

  They were color coordinated, and in fact looked like the three base golems she’d been offered at the beginning of the dungeon. The humanoid one had a wooden blade reminiscent of the axes she’d seen early on and a heavy shield, the dog-like one had seriously long claws, and the third looked like a little spider with a series of holes open on its back.

  She stepped back while they circled her, trying to think of the best way to handle multiple foes at once. Technically she wanted to find a way to duel each of them in turn, which meant that she had to figure out a way to get them all alone.

  Alright, she could do that, Alisanne thought as she ducked beneath the first golem’s sword and sidestepped an unmistakable [Tackle] from her golem’s doppelganger. The little spider stayed still for the most part, though it slowly rotated to follow her as she ran away.

  “Golem, interfere with that one,” Alisanne directed, pointing at the spider golem before fleeing the others. Her ally complied, using its [Tackle] skill and its rather awkward biting abilities. It was hardly a competent combatant, but the spider was occupied and that was all Alisanne really cared about. Three had become two.

  There was a spring up ahead, and Alisanne jumped up onto it and hoped for the best. It shot upward, throwing her up into the sky in the direction of the nearest platform. Moving through the air was surprisingly fun, and Alisanne found that she could somewhat change her trajectory so that she landed well.

  The humanoid golem followed her up by using the same tactic, but it was clumsy in the air and landed on the platform awkwardly. Alisanne activated [Cartwheel Kicksmash] and knocked it right back off again, only to find herself facing the dog-golem a few seconds later.

  It proved to be a simple enough foe; a series of heavy blows bolstered in the last moments of the potion’s efficacy broke its claws and without them it was no more than a series of blocks to be knocked apart.

  Alisanne kept an eye on the pile of wood for a few seconds to make sure there wasn’t going to be any sort of reassembly shenanigans and turned her attention back to the humanoid. Now this was a proper one and one, and Alisanne was confident that she could overcome it in a proper duel. She jumped down, once again feeling the thrill of moving through the open air in the back of her skull and brought her clubs down on the golem’s arms.

  They resisted the blow, but Alisanne activated [Kinetic Tempo] right away and started swinging hard at its joints. Eventually one shoulder gave way, and then a knee followed.

  Of course, it wasn’t entirely one-sided. The enemy golem landed a few blows of its own, and Alisanne stumbled under the strength of one that hit her right thigh. Her leg burned, but Alisanne simply grit her teeth and struck her foe’s remaining good leg and knocked it into two pieces.

  Despite the fact that it was down to a single arm and no proper legs, the golem still tried to fight her, swinging its weapon and making a menacing grinding sound that was probably unintentional. Feeling somewhat guilty, Alisanne stepped out of the way and took off the golem’s final arm, then removed its head from its body with a few good whacks.

  Much like the dog golem, the humanoid golem remained “dead” after that, and Alisanne turned her attention to the final third which was still where she’d left it.

  Her own golem had lost some of its own parts, courtesy of the spider’s wicked fangs, and was barely moving.

  “Golem, back!” Alisanne shouted, moving toward the little spider with every intent of giving it the same treatment as she’d given the others. Of course, well before she got into range of her foe, it turned to face her and started rapid firing tiny wooden projectiles at her. They stung her face, neck, arms, and chest when they hit, and Alisanne stopped in her tracks.

  Every time she tried to move, she ate another barrage, and Alisanne didn’t feel like waiting it out. Instead, she slid her feet apart so that they were aligned with her shoulders, raised her right arm, and activated [Twirling Block]. The skill delivered a satisfying thunk every time it blocked one of the projectiles, and Alisanne slowly advanced, doing her best to keep the skill active.

  She dropped it a few times because she lost her sense of the timing’s rhythm, but a few more hits from the golem’s projectiles weren’t the end of the world.

  When she got close enough to the spider golem to hit it, Alisanne did so, doing her best to keep [Twirling Block] active while using her left hand to deliver blows. The spider was just as weak as the other two, and fell apart after a few whacks.

  She kicked the pile of debris, and saw a pair of wheels connected to a bit of wood that she didn’t remember breaking. Perhaps that was why it hadn’t moved and had simply attacked from range. If so, that was a lucky break, and Alisanne was happy for it.

  The voice announced her victory a few seconds later, and Alisanne fell to her knees. Victory! Sweet, sweet victory!

  [Congratulations! You are now a level 17 Fighter!]

  [Might +1!]

  [Wit + 1!]

  She dismissed the notifications, only for another to appear.

  [What joy there is to be found in the fair skies of battle!]

  Nothing followed that strange pronouncement, and Alisanne dismissed it a moment later like she had the others and stood up. Weird, but not worth dwelling on just then.

  A door to the outside world had opened on the far side of the arena, and she stepped over the broken bits of wood to leave.

  As she walked, she wondered why there had been so many other things in the arena that she hadn’t used or interacted with? What would it have taken for them to be activated?

  Maybe she’d have to come challenge the Toy Box again someday and see.

  Her coin purse substantially heavier than it’d been that morning – Alisanne had elected to take the fleurs over the golem simply on account of storage space considerations – Alisanne met again with Doyle the [Agent] and got a pamphlet of information from him about potential sponsorship opportunities. The majority of his offer was related to other dungeon circuits around Colmere and a few other cities, and he assured her that “there were a lot of people who started there and made their way to the biggest circuits on the continent.”

  The only condition was that she had to defeat the dungeons in Amespool and Shontsdale, and since Alisanne had already planned to do exactly that it wasn’t much of a condition. She thanked Doyle for his interest and promised to look over the pamphlets in greater detail during her trip to Amespool.

  Then, her body aching, Alisanne cashed in her little statues and left the dungeon area. She had one more stop in Yew’s Rise – to the marquetry shop, to get a present for her ma – but it could wait. Her carriage didn’t leave until the next morning, after all.

  Feeling like a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders – and pointedly ignoring the gazes of people in the streets whose shocked faces told her that she was a mess – Alisanne followed the nice neat streets back to her inn so that she could rest and recover.

  And think about that strange notification she’d gotten after the fight. There had to be something more there.

  “Fair skies of battle, huh?”

  Alisanne found herself liking the sound of that.

  Alisanne's Character Sheet:

  Alisanne’s Character Sheet:

  Primary Class: Fighter (Self), Level 17 (+1)

  *Fair skies of battle call ye*

  Secondary Class: Scrimping Saver (Self), Level 11

  Might: 20 (+1)

  Wit: 10 (+1)

  Faith: 14

  Determination: 14

  Ambition: 7

  Greed: 5

  Focus: 8

  Idealism: 8

  Bravery: 8

  Adventurousness: 6