“Oh, Mina’s fine,” Carol said, her voice coming from the air around James. “She finished her fights and made it back to the entrance. She’s just resting now. Um, well done in clearing the final level of expert mode of the Dungeon!”

  “Thanks,” James said. His eyes scanned the Leaderboard as he spoke.

  His name was at the very top, of course.

  James Robard… 108,000

  Below it, the Leaderboard grew more interesting.

  Mina Robard… 18,079

  Black-Furred Bloodsucker Bat Evangeline… 17,842

  Somehow, Mina had come out ahead of Evangeline in score despite the fact that Mina had only completed the hard mode of the Dungeon, while Evangeline had begun delving into expert mode. James supposed that was probably because Mina had performed particularly impressively in hard mode, while Evangeline had likely barely cleared it—and failed to make it past the first level of expert mode.

  He shrugged and ran his eyes down the rest of the list. There were many names on the Leaderboard, but few that James recognized. None of the council members aside from Evangeline had come to the Dungeon, apparently. He should probably praise her for taking the initiative to engage in solitary training.

  “No one else is even close to Mina and Evangeline…”

  The next highest score was 3,208, which James guessed meant the other participants in the Dungeon had never even made it to hard mode.

  Oh, hey, the landlord has been in here, neat…

  “Are you going to go back up, James?” Carol asked.

  “Oh, um, in just a minute, yeah,” he said. “Just need to assess my gains here.”

  James turned to face the ruined bodies of the Red Oni and the Blue Oni. Almost in unison, his stomach growled. A moment ago, they had been talking, sentient beings. Now they were food.

  He took a step back and began to look around. After a moment, he found the Blue Oni’s arm that the Red Oni had chopped off earlier. Then he returned to the two dead monsters and cut into their chests. He extracted what was left of their hearts—they still had some degree of damage from what he had done to the Purple Oni—and he gathered all the meat in his palms.

  Then James used Meteor Strike to cook the meat.

  There was a pleasant smoky aroma reminiscent of roasting pork, until the flesh, charred on all sides, was ready to eat.

  With the meat cooked, he transferred it all to his left hand and used his right to take a plate and some salt out of his magic satchel. He seasoned and ate the severed Blue Oni arm and both monsters’ hearts, smiling thoughtfully as he reflected on the strength and diversity of abilities the two creatures had demonstrated. James was happy to add some of their power to his own and was already looking forward to trading blows again sometime in the future, after Carol brought the two monsters back from the dead and presumably made them even stronger.

  Finally, he pointed his hand at the body of the Red Oni.

  Pillage.

  James selected Talent as his theft target.

  [Red Oni’s body processed.]

  [You obtained Bonded Oni Axe x2!]

  The two axes floated over to James’s hands, and he took hold of them almost instinctively. They looked and felt the same as the Red Oni’s axes, except fitted more to James’s somewhat smaller body.

  [Talent Obtained: Brutal Strength!]

  “No meat,” James observed.

  “Sorry about that,” Carol said. “I honestly did not anticipate that people would see the Onis as a food source. I should’ve known you would, though…” She sounded resigned.

  “Oh, um, no worries,” he said. “I ate my fill.” He patted his stomach awkwardly.

  I’ll make sure to cut off as much meat as I want every time I kill monsters in your Dungeon in future, he thought. Since Pillage doesn’t work quite the same. Let’s see about that Talent, though.

  [Brutal Strength: A true warrior’s full potential only shows when he has a worthy opponent before him. When locked in combat, your Strength increases from its base to match the worthiness of the opponent. Causes the Talent holder to burn Stamina more quickly.]

  Holy shit. That’s one of the most useful Talents I’ve ever seen.

  James immediately turned and Pillaged the other body. He again selected Talent.

  [Blue Oni’s body processed.]

  This time, both a weapon and a book floated toward him. He let go of the axes he’d been holding, and they held still in midair, waiting for him to do something with them.

  Down, he thought.

  The weapons descended toward the ground, following his mental command.

  James smiled. I’m definitely going to use those things.

  [You obtained Power Rod and Tome of Elemental Magic!]

  He grabbed the pole and the book.

  [Talent Obtained: Elementalist!]

  Hmm.

  [Elementalist: The elements are the stuff the universe is made of. Your power is to use these forces with greater natural finesse and efficiency than others. Use your Skills that harness the elements without charging time and at reduced Mana cost.]

  Another Talent that makes me significantly more powerful, he thought. Carol, I’m going to have to come back to your Dungeon…

  James sat down in the grass, read the descriptions for all of his new items, and then smiled.

  I didn’t realize the rod could do that. The Blue Oni didn’t use its full power. I guess it didn’t fit his fighting style to use some of that. But it’s a perfect gift for Mina. Sorry I complained, Carol!

  After he had examined his loot and put it all away in his magic satchel, James rose from where he’d been sitting and began to walk back the way he had come in.

  “Wait, James!” Carol’s voice sounded from all around him.

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  “What’s up?” he asked.

  “Oh, um, I was just going to tell you that there’s a shortcut back to the surface now that you beat the final opponents. If you go into their home—well, the ruins of what used to be their home—you’ll find a teleportation circle. I can guide you to where it is.”

  James turned back toward the temple that the Onis had made their home. The building was still on fire, as he had left it. Every part of the structure was burning. There wasn’t a single safe place to enter that he could see.

  He looked up at the sky and raised a single eyebrow.

  “I’ll just put that out,” Carol said. “Now that the fighting is over, I can manipulate the environment again. One moment…”

  Before James’s eyes, dark clouds formed in the sky above, and after a few seconds of this, a heavy downpour began to fall specifically on the temple. Not a drop fell on James’s head. It was all contained within a very small area.

  Right. In here, Carol’s sort of like the Ruler. No, her power over this environment probably exceeds my power outside. It’s possible she could make the Dungeon so difficult to survive that even I could die here, without successfully reaching her body and killing her. She seemed so weak when we first met, but maybe the circumstance that led me to bring her here in the first place was just luck…

  As he was musing about the nature of Carol’s power and his own in comparison, the rain sounds began to die down. James turned in time to see the last drops of water falling onto the still-smoking ruin of the temple. The Dungeon Core had indeed put it out.

  “Sorry about that building,” James said after a moment. “It was really pretty before we started fighting inside.”

  “Oh, that’s no big deal,” Carol said. James imagined her shrugging, though he knew she did not have a physical body anymore. “I can fix that as soon as I get you out of here. I rebuild most of the Dungeon periodically even when I don’t get challengers into certain parts. How did you like it?”

  “This place was great!” he said enthusiastically. “The Onis were a good challenge, and the reward for winning was excellent, too.”

  “Reward?” Carol asked. “You haven’t even cashed in your points yet. Oh, I was going to explain about that…”

  As she told James, she still had groceries and other resources available as prizes—some of which was now supplied by other countries in the post-System world—but now she had created a points system that allowed people to pay for whatever items they wanted, including magical items and other things produced by the System. There was also an option to convert points into System Credits.

  James nodded slowly. “I’ll have to come back soon, then,” he said.

  “Right. Now I can guide you to the exit…”

  Over the next few minutes, Carol talked James through a side door—the front of the temple was still smokier than the edges and the back—down a hallway, into the Blue Oni’s bedroom, and then under the Blue Oni’s bed.

  James took a moment to look around the room before he continued following Carol’s directions. This part of the house was untouched by the fire, other than some slight staining from smoke on the ceiling. The Blue Oni’s room was very blue themed. The walls were painted in dark blue with a star pattern, the bed had sky blue covers, and there was a blue lava lamp sitting on the Oni’s wooden dresser.

  “This is a charming room,” James murmured. “It feels kind of like a kid’s space somehow.”

  “I let them decorate the temple themselves,” Carol said. “And, you know, they are pretty young. Even though monsters age differently than humans, sort of like animals come out more mature than human babies, they’re still basically kids.” She sounded slightly uncomfortable, and James decided not to linger longer.

  “So, under the bed, you said?” he asked.

  “Yeah, you can flip it. I’m going to rebuild this whole level after you’re gone, probably, so don’t worry about breaking things.”

  “Got it,” he said.

  James flipped the bed immediately. It was just fun to throw furniture around. If he didn’t have things to do, he probably would have destroyed the whole building.

  He looked at the star pattern on the walls once more.

  Then again, maybe not.

  There was something sad about this place.

  James found the door in the floor under the Blue Oni’s bed instantly. It wasn’t hidden aside from being beneath the bed itself.

  He lifted it, and he saw a small corner of a brightly lit space. James put his legs through the hole and then dropped straight down. He found himself in the break room that he had found Carol in when they first met. Even the Dungeon Core was still in its old place.

  It seemed that the more things changed, the more they stayed the same.

  “You were that attached to your original environment, huh?” he muttered.

  Then James sensed movement. He instantly assumed a fighting stance—and relaxed almost as quickly.

  A female figure had stepped into the corner of his field of view.

  “Hi, Carol,” James said. He turned to face her.

  “Hello, James.” The figure’s mouth moved, but the sound still came from all around them.

  “It’s good to see you, um, in the flesh?” The sentence unintentionally turned into a question as it slipped out. As he observed Carol in a humanoid form for the first time, he took in every detail. She wore glasses over dark eyes and had dyed her naturally brunette hair purple. There were bags under her eyes. She was dressed in a lavender cardigan, a red blouse, and a cornflower blue skirt. The main thing that drew his attention, however, was that there was something insubstantial in her presence.

  It was hard to put his finger on it. Then she took a step toward him, and he recognized it. Her foot did not make a sound as it touched the floor.

  “Not quite in the flesh,” she acknowledged. “Just another step toward it. I can make a visual illusion of myself. I unlocked it a couple of days ago. I can’t travel far from the Dungeon Core—from my body—but it feels good to have hands and feet again. Being able to control the Dungeon is great and all, but you know, I do kind of miss existing in the world. A little bit.”

  He smiled. “I’m glad you’re doing well. Soon you’ll be able to touch objects with your hands again.”

  Carol nodded. “That’s right. I wanted to tell you in person. Mainly I wanted to thank you.”

  James raised an eyebrow. “To thank me? I kidnapped you and put you to work. Or at least that’s how I remember it.”

  They both chuckled.

  “Well, if you hadn’t kidnapped me, I wouldn’t have had this stable situation, allowing me to grow,” she said. “You and Mina—I won’t forget what I owe you and your family, James. I hear things about how dangerous the world is outside—I hear everything people say in the Dungeon.” She lowered her voice. “I just want you to know that if you’re ever worried about your family, you can send them here. I’ll keep them in my hiding place, where you are now. I’ll keep them safe. I can’t do that for the whole population or something, but I owe you this much at least.”

  James felt a surge of emotion, and it must have shown on his face.

  “Well, don’t look at me like that, big guy!” Carol said. “You’re going to make me feel weird.” She moved as if to push James lightly on the shoulder, but her hand passed through, insubstantial for a moment, and re-formed on the other side.

  “Thank you, Carol,” James said quietly. “The world is only getting more dangerous—until I bring some kind of order. We’re sending out the army to make a start on it. Probably tomorrow.”

  “Well, I have faith in you,” she replied. “I’m living proof that you can create the environment that at least some people need to thrive.”

  “I’m glad you were able to do well here,” he said.

  “More than that! I mean, if I was still on my own, I’d probably be a serial killer by now, and I still wouldn’t have a body—whereas next time you see me, we can have a thumb war—but what I meant is all the other people who come in here. Hundreds of people have been in the Dungeon. All of those people felt comfortable enough with the safety you’ve established to leave their family members back in the Fisher Kingdom and come down to a place where they couldn’t easily exit. This is despite how traumatizing Orientation was for so many of us. There were even people like me, back then, who were happy to give up having a physical body out of fear of being killed and eaten. Somehow, all of those people have put most of that fear behind them. They feel safe. If I hadn’t seen it, I would have thought it was impossible. The one common factor between them is you.”

  “Thank you, Carol,” James said again. He puffed his chest out slightly as he spoke.

  “Keep on keeping on, Fisher King,” Carol said, smiling a little sadly. “I’ll look forward to hearing more about your exploits—and seeing you and Mina in person again.”

  “Next time, I’ll shake your hand,” he said.

  Carol’s smile perked up a little. Then she jerked her thumb to gesture behind her, at a circle made of runes carved into the floor.

  “There’s the teleportation circle,” she said. “Just walk inside and think about going back to the entrance. That’s where Mina is waiting for you.”

  James nodded. “Oh, um, I look forward to seeing the Red Oni and the Blue Oni again, too, by the way.”

  “I’m sure they’ll be looking forward to your next fight too,” Carol said. “I’ll ensure they keep their memories intact, so they recognize you next time. They’ll be even better at fighting, too.”

  “Excellent.” James was mostly happy to think the Onis would still exist. They’d had a certain charm to them.

  Then James stepped forward, until he stood in the middle of the circle. He thought about the entrance to the Dungeon—and suddenly he found himself in another place.