Elemental [Noun] {monster}: elementals are one of the most common monsters found in dungeons, often aligning themselves with the aura signature of their host. While elementals are a pure embodiment of their element, they can take on a variety of shapes and demeanors even within similar families. An example of this can be seen when looking at the differences between a fire elemental, which takes on a humanoid appearance and a flamhund, which takes on a canine appearance. Both are considered fire elementals, even though only one is named such.

  Joe dodged the metal crab claw of the tin elemental and brought his handshaker down in a perfect wood splitter smash. The head of the monster buckled under the impact, denting it even further than the last three times Joe’d hit it upside the head. This time though the red glow in the elementals' eyes went out and it slumped bonelessly to the floor. You know, Joe thought to himself as he leaned against the polished metal wall of the corridor and caught his breath, prior to this moment I thought seeing mythical creatures like minotaur and lamia was the most surreal thing I was going to see. Now I’m fighting 1950’s wind up robots with a pointy bat.

  Joe had asked Micah and Jill if this was how tin elementals normally looked, and both his companions agreed. Neither saw the boxy robot shape of the elementals strange in the slightest. I guess they wouldn’t, if they hadn’t grown up watching cheesy old B movies as a kid. So far Joe’s first dungeon delve had been an eventful one. The abandoned mine they had started out in had abruptly become the set of some classic sci fi tv show. What had once been roughly worked natural cavern walls were now brushed metal corridors with shiny doors that opened when a person stepped in front of them. Convenient, but also prone to letting the monsters inside out into the corridor without warning.

  The trio had already fought their way through half a dozen rooms and hallways now, fighting off twice that number in tin elementals. Despite looking like clunky childrens toys, the elementals moved hellishly fast when they wanted to, catching Joe by surprise on more than one occasion.

  “Alright, it’s down.” Joe panted as he called back into the hallway. “Room looks like a cafeteria, but I don’t see any food.”

  “I wouldn’t trust it if you did.” Micah said. The big minotaur had to duck to enter the room, the doorways being only about six feet tall and not designed for someone with a sweeping set of horns.

  “Look around regardless, you’d be surprised what you find tucked in amongst mundane items.” Jill’s monotone voice proceeded her into the room before the three fanned out to look. The room was some forty feet by sixty with a twenty foot ceiling. Rows of metal bench style tables filled the space with the far short wall playing host to a buffet style serving area. Another door was tucked into the corner next to it, presumably leading to the kitchens, if this place made any sense.

  “Looks pretty bare to me,” Joe ducked his head down under the level of the tables to check for anything on the ground. Loot within the space ship/dungeon had been light so far, mostly consisting of sci fi themed mana coins that Micah had been very enthusiastic about. Joe wouldn’t have guessed it, but it seemed the young adventurer liked to collect dungeon generated coins. Something about the faces being non-standard compared to the coinage made by the various kingdoms. What it amounted to was Micah making a note to fill out the paperwork needed to claim one of each coin type they found.

  That had been another surprise to Joe. Apparently all loot was to be turned over to the adventures guild, appraised, then the equivalent 85% he was owed was returned as cash or requested items. It was just one of those things the guild had failed to mention in their negotiations.

  “Damn, maybe we’ll have better luck in the next room.” Micah hefted his large sword off his shoulder and held it by the blade, turning the cross guard into a makeshift hammer. He caught Joe’s frown out of the corner of his eye and grinned. “What? Still think this is a bad idea?”

  “I just don’t see how holding a sword by the blade can be safe.” Joe admitted.

  “It’s not.” Jill put in standing up from where she’d been doing her own survey of the ground.

  “It’s not if you don’t know what you’re doing,” Micah countered. “I’ve been trained in murder strike and know how to safely do it. I wouldn’t expect, nor endorse Joe trying this.”

  “That makes two of us. Because I plan on keeping all ten of my fingers, thank you very much.” Joe gestured towards the door. “Anyway, you’re up to breach the next room.”

  “Yeah yeah,” grumbled the minotaur as he moved toward the door. He took up a loose fighting stance; legs apart, left hand towards the point of the sword, Right hand choked up near the crossguard. Carefully, he edged towards the door until it sensed him and slid open with a quiet hiss. The room beyond was eclipsed by another tin elemental, its blocky body almost filling the whole of the door. Micah took a quick step back as one of its pincer hands shot out at him, the metal claw snapping shut an inch or so in front of his face.

  It lumbered out into the wide open cafeteria, giving Micah more room to maneuver around it. He ducked another swipe of its pincers before he brought the sword around in a wide arc that ended with the crossguard hitting the tin elemental right in the back of its head. The blunted end of the crossguard penetrated deeply, causing blue sparks to shoot out of the resulting hole. A moment later, the light went out of the elemental's eyes and it slumped to the ground.

  “Not that I’m complaining,” Micah said as he jerked his weapon from the still form in front of him. “But by and large, this run’s been kinda easy.”

  “Micah Vandenburg,” Jill sighed, her neutral tones making it difficult to tell if she was being sarcastic. “Now you’ve challenged the gods to an ass kicking contest with no pants on.”

  “Is that really a saying?!” The question was out before Joe could stop himself.

  Micah laughed, apparently not chastised in the least. “Yeah, you’ve never heard of it?”

  “No, I can’t honestly say I have.”

  “Well remember it, and you can use it in the future. Come on, it looks like this is the kitchen back here.” Micah hefted his weapon back onto his shoulder with the handle facing up into the air and the flat of the blade set against his skin before he turned around and entered the next room.

  Said room was indeed a kitchen-like space, looking exactly like any industrial kitchen back on Earth. They did find more coinage tucked into various utensil drawers, but apparently none of the knives or other gadgets were worth taking. Along the back wall were four doors, two to a side flanking a long set of ovens.

  It was Jill’s turn on point, but both Micah and Joe booed when the door she opened turned out to be an empty janitors closet. By mutual consent she opened the next one and was rewarded with two tin elements crammed into a tiny office space.

  With nowhere to go but out, the enemy surged for the door. The first one got Jill’s crossbow arm and squeezed as hard as its mechanical pincers could. The leather sleeve caught in its grip deformed before shearing off completely. Thus relieved of her arm, Jill ducked down and rolled out of the way as Micah brought his greatsword around, burying the crossguard in the creature's eye. It was unceremoniously shoved sideways by the other tin elemental as it fought to get into the room.

  Micah was still fighting to get his sword out of the downed elemental, needing to be careful not to cut himself as he did so. He ended up having to abandon his weapon to dodge the new threat as it bore down on him. Joe tried to come to his aid, but as he stepped forward Jill popped up holding her severed arm out in front of her. It still had a grip on the pistol bow and fired it, apparently completely unaware it was no longer attached to its owner. The bolt slammed into the elemental’s forehead with the sound of someone kicking a bucket. While the blow snapped the creature's head back, it did not check its headlong charge into the room.

  Jill ended up needing to dive out of the way again as it made a grab for her good arm, leaving Joe standing dumbly in its path.

  “Swing!” Micah shouted, which finally got Joe’s body to react. He swung the handshaker in a long arc, catching the tin elemental in the side of the neck and causing it to stagger. It lashed out at him with a sideways chop and Joe instinctively brought his arm up to block it.

  This proved to be a mistake. As metal met flesh there was a sickening crack and pain blossomed through Joe’s arm. “Sonofabitch!” he swore, dropping his handshaker to grab and his damaged arm. The tin elemental loomed over him, it’s red eyes burning as it lashed out to hit him again. Before it could complete the swing Micah brought his sword down on the back of it’s head causing it to deform and driving the creature to its knees.

  “Fuck, Joe are you ok?” Micah left his weapon embedded in the back of the elemental’s head and rushed over to Joe.

  “Ah,” Joe hissed through his teeth. He could already see a nasty purple bruise the size of his hand forming on his arm. The whole thing throbbed alarmingly and any movement beyond pressing the damaged limb to his chest made the pain worse. “I think it broke my arm.”

  “Likely,” Jill came up on Joe’s other side, her severed arm still clutched in her other hand. “Thankfully it looks like only a simple fracture, which should be easy enough to deal with.” Before Joe could ask about her own injuries, the lamnotta stuck her severed limb back onto its stump. Joe could actually see the seam between limb and stump disappear through her clear skin as the limb joined back into her main body. Within a few seconds the only evidence she’d taken any damage at all was the loss of her sleeve on her right side.

  “Oh good, hold on.” Micah rooted around in one of his belt pouches. He retrieved a four inch section of wooden dowel wrapped in leather cord. Joe couldn’t help but notice there were bite marks in it. “Ok Joe,” Micah said soothingly as he handed the leather wrapped dowel to Joe. “We’re going to have to use one of your healing potions on you. Have you ever had a grade two healing potion before?”

  When Joe shook his head Micah gave a gallows chuckle and set his hand on Joe’s shoulder. “This is going to hurt like hell. Are your potions topical or internal?”

  “They all need to be drunk.” Joe managed through gritted teeth.

  “Ok, Then here’s how it’s going to go; Jill will support your arm while you drink the potion. Once it’s all down you’re gunna want to put that in your mouth and grab my hand with your good arm, got it?”

  “Got it,” Joe gingerly took the dowl from Micah. I hope he cleaned this recently. “The healing potions are in the front pocket of my bag.”

  “Got one.” Jill held up the uncorked bottle she’d already retrieved and passed it to Joe. After he’d taken it from her she gently took his damaged arm in her hands. Her touch was surprisingly warm. As Joe watched, her hands flowed together. They formed a solid tube around the damaged section of his arm, supporting it without being painfully tight.

  “Alright then, “Joe sighed, he gave the bottle a theatrical swirl. “Here goes.” He tossed the potion back, needing to take several long chugs before he could get the contents down. By the time he’d finished it off, he could already feel the effects kicking in. Joe managed to get the bit into his mouth just as his right arm blossomed in the worst pain he’d ever had. It felt like a bone deep burn mixed with an itch that somehow managed to reach into his very soul. Micah made a grab for him as he staggered, while Jill kept his injured arm still.

  The bottom dropped out of Joe’s stomach, and his vision swam as the pain receded and the itch ramped up. His whole body itched, like bugs were crawling over his bones and nibbling at them. After what felt like an eternity the itch receded, leaving Joe sweating buckets and trembling. “That,” he panted, spitting out the bit into Micah’s outstretched hand “fucking sucked. Remind me never to get hurt again.”

  Micah patted Joe on the shoulder as he pocketed the bit, “ yeah good luck with that.”

  Now clear of the obstructing elementals the office beyond the door looked, quite frankly, not worth the effort. The walls were blank gray metal whose only adornments were scrambled Orange rectangles that looked like they were trying to be safety posters. A desk that looked like it was made of the same metal as the walls took up the majority of the space with just enough room to sit behind it, if there had been a seat.

  Micah moved carefully around behind it, running his hand along the surface and back. “We’ve got drawers. Think they’re trapped?”

  “If they are, I can deal with them.” Jill stated, coming around the desk to look at what he’d found. The space was now well past fully occupied, so Joe loitered by the entry, keeping one eye on the doors they hadn’t checked yet. His arm still tingled, and he had no desire to have to use another potion.

  The drawers ended up not being trapped. In total they yielded over a gold’s worth of coins as well as a few dark grey crystals that Micah had explained were likely metal aspected mana crystals.

  “I gotta admit,” Micah said, pulling a face as he pocketed the coins and crystals. “So far this dungeon’s sucked for loot. Normally by now we’d have found at least one magic item, or something. I mean the coinage is nice. It’s easy to distribute when all’s said and done, but I want to see what a metal elemental nest produces for enchanted loot!”

  Joe’s brain nudged him, and he remembered the firelight gemstone he’d gotten back in the abandoned mine. Almost sheepishly, he withdrew it from his belt and held it out to Micah. “Oh yeah, I did find this in a spoil pile back in the mine. Is it worth much?”

  Micah shrugged. “I don’t know, you tell me. You’re the one that knows how to identify magic items.”

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “It’s a firelight gemstone.” Joe answered as Jill picked it up from his palm to inspect it in the light of her still burning mana coin.

  Micah gave a “so so” hand wiggle. “Eh, not really? I mean it’s enchanted so that’s something, but it’s not really a big ticket item. I hope it turns around soon though. This is giving me the feeling of a dungeon near the end of its lifespan.”

  “Really? Already?” Joe didn’t try and stop Jill as she bent her arm back and deposited the gemstone in her backpack.

  “Yeah, loot’s the first thing to dry up before a dungeon collapses. Which would be a shame, I doubt any of us will see another dungeon this accessible again.”

  “Which is probably for the best.” Jill interjected, “dungeons appearing in people's homes is more of a cause for concern than celebration.”

  Micah nodded “You’re right. Let’s get moving. I want to clear a little bit more before we stop for lunch.”

  They cleared the remaining doors without issue or loot, which was something that wouldn’t have bothered Joe fifteen minutes ago. Now though, with Micah having put the idea of the dungeon dying in his head, Joe worried about what would happen to this place. It’s not like I’d be out much really he thought as Jill baited out another tin elemental for Micah to dispatch. This is my first delve, and the credit I get from the guild goes to Paul. Other than the opportunity to skive off from work and come play hero, I’d not lose all that much if this place collapsed. Still, the idea of losing out on the opportunity to come down here felt like a blow to Joe. He’d wanted a quiet life, but this felt like just enough adventure to keep him happy.

  “Alright Joe, your turn on point. Cross your fingers and hope there’s something good in here.” Joe could just hear the barely concealed disappointment in Micah’s voice. Clearly the minotaur had wanted their full day delve to be more profitable than it had been. Really, with the coins Jill’s been using to light our way, plus the potion I had to use, we may not even break even on this run.

  Joe did his best to tamp that new worry down as he rotated to the front and approached the door. With him on point the other two took up strategic positions around the door. The idea being that if Joe needed to, he could back out of the room and make an opening for them to flank his enemies. It was a strategy that had seen them through more than a few of their encounters thus far, but meant that Joe would be the only one who actually saw into the room before everything kicked off.

  This time when the door opened, there were no tin elementals. Instead a semi-transparent little girl sat on a bed in the room. She took one look at Joe and vanished so fast he wasn’t sure he’d seen her at all. Joe lowered his handshaker and looked around the room. It was small, about ten feet square. There was a bed tucked in one corner with a closet set into the wall next to it. Opposite the bed was a recessed sink and mirror next to a wall mounted computer terminal that lacked a keyboard. There was nowhere for the little girl to have hidden, as the bed she’d been sitting on was pushed up against the wall and sat on a solid platform.

  “Um, all clear I guess?” Joe said, stepping back to look at his companions. “I thought I saw a little girl, but she vanished the moment I stepped into the room.”

  “A little girl?” Micah looked at Jill, who shrugged.

  “I’m not aware of any monsters that take the appearance of a small child, but we are in an aberrant dungeon, so should proceed with caution.”

  “Yeah, what she said. Do you think it’s worth digging around in their Joe or should we just move on?” Joe’s gut was telling him to move on, but the lack of any really valuable loot had him second guessing his instincts. Eventually, despite his other sterling qualities, greed won out in Joe’s heart and he shook his head.

  “We need to find something that’ll make this trip worthwhile. I’ll go in and poke around while you two stay out here and watch my back. Micah and Jill exchanged glances with each other, but didn’t argue the point.

  “Alright,” Micah began digging around in one of his belt pouches. “But we’re going to tie a rope around your waist. If we see anything that makes us suspicious we’re going to yank you out of there so hard you’ll leave your boots on the carpet.” He produced a spool of rope that was no thicker than a shoelace and quickly tied the loose end around Joe’s waist.

  The first thing Joe went to inspect was the closet. If the girl had disappeared anywhere in the room, it would have been there. Opening it up he found it was empty, save for a silvery shirt hung on a hanger.

  Mithril Undershirt.

  A shirt woven from hair-thick strands of mithril. It is meant to be worn under other armor to help protect the user against piercing and slashing attacks.

  Note: Due to its construction, the mithril undershirt cannot be repaired.

  “I found some mithril armor.” Joe called back to his companions. He heard Micah let out a long whistle.

  “Hot damn! That’s the first decent bit of loot we’ve found.”

  Joe unhooked it from the wire hanger it was on and brought it back to his companions. The shirt was remarkably heavy and almost freezing to the touch. “I wouldn’t get your hopes up. It looks like it’s meant to be under armor protection rather than the main bit of armor.”

  Jill took it from him and rubbed the material between two emerald green fingers. “The fact this is mithril alone is worth something, the workmanship on it also appears to be excellent so it’s still a good find. Is there anything else in there?”

  “I’ll take a look.” Joe stepped back in and looked around. There was no cupboard above or below the sink. A quick tug on the mirror itself told Joe that there wasn’t a hidden medicine cabinet behind it. I don’t really think there’s anywhere else to look. Joe thought as he scanned the little room. His eyes fell on the “computer” tucked into the corner of the dorm like room. It took him back to what he got up to in his own dorm back in college and Joe chuckled to himself. He stuck his hand under the mattress and was surprised to find that it, as well as the comforter over it were fused to the platform it sat on.

  “Well so much for that” he muttered, “ although what dungeon generated porn would look like is beyond me.” On a whim Joe tried to stick his hand under the pillow and was surprised when it slid underneath. His hand brushed along a familiar feeling hard object under the pillow and Joe's eyebrows went up. “ What the hell are you doing here?” The object he pulled out looked like someone had tried to make a steampunk mauser pistol.

  The hand grip was made from dark burl wood that looked like chocolate syrup drizzled over walnuts. Instead of steel, the body of the weapon was made from highly polished brass with copper highlights. A copper filigree coin slot sat on the left side of the magazine where it would be easily accessible to someone holding the weapon in their right hand. Joe tipped his head back to get a look at the weapon through his tutorial specs.

  Mana Blaster

  A powerful blaster that concentrates its entire mana reserve into one devastating blow. Blaster is reloaded through the coin slot on the left hand side.

  0/10 mu

  Of course, it wouldn't come preloaded, Joe grumbled to himself as he looked the weapon over. There was a sharp tug on the rope around his waist followed by Micah’s voice.

  “Oi, you’ve gone quiet, all good in there?”

  “Yeah, I think I’ve found that magic item you were looking for.” Joe gave the room one more quick look around before heading out to present his findings to his companions. Micah looked dubious of it when he saw Joe’s prize.

  “What the hell is that? It looks like a hand bow without the bow part.” He said as he took it from Joe to examine. Joe flinched inwardly as Micah’s finger immediately fell onto the trigger. Ostensibly the weapon was unloaded, having no mana in it to go off, but years of gun safety screamed at Joe as Micah waved it around with his finger on the trigger. Joe finally took it back when the minotaur pointed it at his own head to look down the barrel.

  “It’s something called a ‘mana blaster’ apparently,” Joe covered his confiscation of the weapon by passing it to Jill, who thankfully kept her finger off the trigger as she looked it over. Then again, of the two of them she’s the one that regularly uses a pistol bow.

  “I’ve heard of mana blasters,” Jill said, her flat voice giving no hint on what she thought of the thing. “They’re pretty rare. Apparently the enchantment that makes them work is too complicated to be fully replicated, so the only way to get one is to buy it or find it in a dungeon.”

  “Well hot damn,” Micah clapped Joe on the shoulder, causing him to almost drop the mana blaster as he took it back from Jill. “That might explain why the loot’s been so poor this run. The dungeon went and poured it all into that thing! We’ll have to try it out while we’ve got it.”

  “It’s a bronze a shot though, “ Joe told him. “You pull the trigger ten times and there goes a week's worth of groceries.” That revelation didn’t seem to dampen the young minotaur's enthusiasm however. He just grinned down at Joe and spread his hands wide.

  “Yeah, but when’s the next time that you’re going to get a chance to play with one of those things?” Micah’s words set off a red flag in Joe’s head. He narrowed his eyes as he looked up at the taller man.

  “What do you mean ‘when’s the next time’? I get to keep eighty five percent of the loot. Why can’t I just keep the blaster?”

  “You can requisition it if you’d like,” Jill said from his other side. “However, if it accounts for more than your allotted eighty five percent then the guild is within their rights to put the weapon up for auction and give you the cash equivalent of your percentage.”

  Joe felt a petty sort of anger rise up in him at that revelation. “That hardly seems fair, what would I have to do if it’s more than my percentage and I want to keep it?”

  Micah shrugged, giving Joe a ‘what can you do?’ sort of look. “Buy it at auction? I know, it sucks. I’ve found some choice pieces in our delves, only to have the guild snatch them up and sell them because they were too good.”

  They stopped for lunch at that point, which was fine with Joe. The high he’d been riding at finding something so amazing as a magic gun had been fun while it lasted. Now he just wanted to get this done and get back home. They decided to double back to the cafeteria to take advantage of the tables while they ate lunch. Said lunch wasn’t anything special, consisting mostly of dry meat and a crumbly hardtack like bread Joe was indifferent to. The overly salty fare was cut with dried fruits to add some sweetness and plain water, which was necessary to get the bread down their throats.

  They talked a little as they ate, but mostly sat in that tired sort of silence where no one really had the energy for more than mechanical eating. Joe had let his mind unspool into blissful nothingness when movement out of the corner of his eye brought him crashing back to the moment.

  The little girl was back. Joe could just see her peeking out from under one of the tables. He didn’t dare turn his head or bring her to the attention of his companions in case she disappeared again and he looked like a fool for jumping at shadows. Instead Joe ‘accidently’ dropped one of the little bread rolls and kicked it across the ground towards her to see what she’d do.

  At first she disappeared, but after a moment she faded back into view and toddled forward to look at the bread roll where it had landed. Now that she was more out in the open Joe could get a better look at her out of the corner of his eye. She looked to be about two, barely able to walk straight and dressed in a simple white smock. Her skin and hair were both washed out and pale, adding to the ghost-like quality of the girl. She observed the biscuit for a long moment before seeming to get tired of standing and half fell, half sat next to it to continue her observation in more comfort. Occasionally she looked up at Joe, but he made sure to be looking a different way when she looked up at him.

  What kind of a monster is she? She doesn’t seem hostile. Joe looked over at his companions who appeared to be in deep conversation over a hefty looking book. Are they doing homework? He cleared his throat, getting their attention after the second try. “Do dungeons generate passive monsters? Like ones that don’t attack on sight?”

  The two of them glanced at each other before Jill answered for the pair. “Not to my knowledge. While it may be possible in an aberrant dungeon it’s never been observed.”

  “So we might encounter one in here?” Joe leaned back in his seat to try and catch the ghost girl in his peripheral, but she seemed to have disappeared leaving the bread ration behind.

  “Unlikely. I only said it was possible here because an aberrant dungeon already breaks so many of the normal rules of dungeons. It would be more prudent to assume all monsters here are hostile for your own safety.”

  An unpleasant thought crossed Joe’s mind. “What happens to monsters that are still alive when the dungeon shifts?”

  Micah gave a shrug. “They disappear? No one’s really found a way or reason to study it, why?”

  Joe thought about a lost little girl, left alone to wander through a hostile environment until she just suddenly ceased to be. Would it be painful? Would she even know what was happening? He tried his best to squash those thoughts. Steady on Joe, you don’t even know what that was. Let’s not get attached to something that’s more likely to eat your face than shake your hand.

  <><><>

  The tin elemental's head crumpled like it had been hit with a bat before the excess force tore it clean off its shoulders. “Man I hope you get to keep this Joe, this thing is amazing!” Micah cackled as he loaded another bronze into the mana blaster.

  “That is your last shot Micah, you’ve already spent almost a silver.” Jill’s gentle chastisement took some of the wind out of the young minotaurs sails, but he rallied quickly. “I’ll just have to make it count then. Think I can get another headshot?”

  “Probably,” Joe admitted, eyeballing what was ostensibly his weapon. He’d gotten to fire it twice before Micah had asked to try it. Joe hadn’t been able to get it out of the man’s hands since. “You’ve definitely improved your accuracy.”

  “If only a crossbow hit like this.” Micah complained. He dropped into a shooter stance, sighting down along the blaster as he did so. “I’d hang up my sword and go ranger in a heartbeat.”

  “No you wouldn’t,” Jill reached up and gently pulled Micah’s hands down to his sides. “You’re too excitable to be happy with the reload speed of a crossbow. You’d get frustrated and just use it as a club.”

  Micah flexed the arm Jill currently wasn’t holding. “Yeah, and I look too good swinging my sword around.”

  “That too.” Jill confirmed. Her face remained as stoic as it ever did, but her hand gave his bicep a squeeze.

  “Speaking of weapons, can you take this thing back? It’s damn heavy to carry.” Joe repositioned the minotaurs sword where he was carrying it across his shoulder. He was regretting offering to hold it while Micah tried his gun.

  “One more shot and then I will.” Micah punched the air and started down the corridor. “Let’s go!”

  Micah’s exuberance was short-lived, as a mere two rooms later they came upon the dungeon core. Joe was completely unprepared for what they found. The room felt like being inside a geode, with walls, ceiling, and floor a glittering surface of spiked crystals. Spinning slowly at its center was a roughly basketball sized sphere of pure white crystal. As Joe watched, points of light shot out of the sphere and into crystal spikes along the outer wall of the room.

  “What’s it doing?” Joe asked, his voice full of awe at the spectacle before him.

  “No idea, each core room is unique.” Micah answered. He was watching Joe more than he was the grandeur of the room before them, a small smile on his face. “My guess is it’s charging up for the next shift. Checking the core is a good way to get a reading on the health of the dungeon. The color and light will start to turn grey and dim the closer it gets to total collapse. Looking at this one now, I’m not worried about it collapsing any time soon.”

  Joe was finding it difficult to tear his eyes away from the core. Despite first appearances, the core was not pure white. Small dark shadows swirled just under the surface, giving the impression that something was moving around inside the core. When he did manage to finally get free of it, Joe noticed that there was no other exit from the room. “Wait, so does this mean we managed to get to the bottom of the dungeon?”

  “Yep, now we get the fun job of climbing back up and out.” Micah looked embarrassed for a moment. “Um, sorry I hogged the blaster so much, I didn’t realize we were getting so close to the end.”

  Joe waved off the apology. He’d had the chance to shoot guns back on earth, but he was fairly certain this was the one and only time Micah would get the chance to. “Don’t worry about it, I’m just glad we got some loot.” Joe looked down at the mana blaster in his hand. “What are the odds they’ll let me keep this?”

  “With the loot we’ve managed to obtain,” Jill tilted her head to the side as she did the mental calculations. “I would say very likely not. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to put in the request papers anyway, you might get lucky.”

  “Maybe…” Joe gave the core room one last look before they exited. Even if he didn’t get to keep the mana blaster, and even with his broken arm, this had been an enjoyable experience for him. I’m glad I got to do this.