The portal dropped me onto a game trail leading through a forest. The trees looked to be mostly evergreens, pines and spruces, with a smattering of birch. The trees weren't closely packed, and brown needles littered the ground.

  Razorbeak's caravan dungeons were known for taking the landscape around them into consideration when conjuring the extradimensional space inside, and it looked like that was still a feature. This was a boreal forest, like one you would find in the north if a magical blizzard wasn't constantly on the rampage.

  Based on the cool, but not uncomfortable, air, I guessed that it was around springtime in the dungeon currently. Feeling the cold, I reached for my chest with both hands. My coat’s weather insulating enchantments should have been working, but they weren’t. I reached into my Dimensional Pocket only to find that it had been turned into a normal one.

  There was a note inside, though, and I pulled it out.

  “To give access to all enchantments would be overkill in a low level dungeon like this one,” I read aloud. “Therefore, your gear’s abilities will be unlocked as you reach various milestones going forward.”

  I took a moment to process what the note said, and then I read it again.

  “What the fuck,” I muttered to myself, crumpling the paper and throwing it onto the ground. My blood pounded through my head as anger took over.

  Then I took a breath and took stock of myself. Aside from the rage, I didn’t feel any different. Whatever they had done must have been subtle. Either way, I would have to be vigilant about any mental oddities. My anger was expected given the situation, at least.

  The interaction with Himia played through my mind. All sorts of regulations, guidelines, and codes were being broken here willy-nilly.

  And then just changing classes and subjecting people to illegal magic? Himia was clearly dangerous but she still answered to this Dungeon Master guy, so how bad was he? He was seducing Dragons, casually sending dangerous dungeons way off their mark with no concern for the societies they pass through, and tinkering with things that ought not to be tinkered with.

  Willy-nilly!

  “I bet I would have gotten through to her with a less diplomatic method,” I said to a nearby tree, kicking at its trunk. “But no, Brackenhorst says ‘be more diplomatic, Badger,’ and ‘that’s the fourth dungeon owner to complain about you in the past month, what are you telling them?’ I don’t care that he’s my boss, next time I see that dwarf I’m going to show him the kind of diplomacy that involves sticking my foot right up—”

  Needles and pine cones cracking caught my attention, and I turned to see a moose. It was staring straight at me before it stopped around forty feet away. A yellow aura outlined it, which I didn't understand. What was the purpose of that? Was yellow the color symbolizing Moose's magical affinity for holy energy?

  “Moose?” I called. “Where are Ferrisdae and Cojisto?”

  The moose croaked at me.

  “Great,” I sighed. I began walking towards the animal. “Of course they didn't offer the ability to understand the language of the moosefolk. That would be too easy, wouldn't it? Here’s an alleged upgrade, but you can't talk to moose. Or, Moose. Whatever.”

  As I got closer, the animal lowered his head and began stomping. I recognized a threat display when I saw one.

  “What's wrong?” I asked, throwing my arms up in confusion. “Do you need Cojisto around to behave yourself?”

  The yellow aura around the creature turned orange, and then changed to red. I had only closed about half the distance before the moose bellowed and charged at me.

  I took a defensive stance, putting my hands up to catch it by its antlers. This wasn’t something I was in the mood for at all. Digging my feet into the ground, I waited for the right moment.

  Its antlers raised before they could reach me, and I was momentarily caught off guard. Was this a false charge? For what purpose? Why was Moose doing this?

  In my moment of confusion, I wasn’t prepared when the animal hit me straight in the chest with one of its front hooves. I was sent flying, the wind knocked from my lungs, finally coming to a stop against a pine tree. I sat up and gingerly rubbed where I had been struck.

  Despite the blow and the tumble, it wasn't as painful as I expected.

  The moose snorted and stomped, then lowered its head again. I gritted my teeth through the pain, forcing myself to stand up. I began to shuffle towards the other side of the tree to deny the moose its charge lane while looking for something that could be used as a weapon. Nothing immediately looked like it would work, but my field of view was limited since I refused to take my eyes off of the enemy.

  Apparently, this was all it needed to resume aggression. It charged at me again. I spun around the tree, and a flash of white and brown passed me by on the other side.

  I turned to see Cojisto running towards the animal. His aura was blue, and his arms were covered in rippling purple energy. There wasn't time to think about that, though. He had positioned himself directly in front of the charging moose.

  Cojisto didn't flinch, at least not that I could see, and reached out for the antlers. The purple energy around his arms also appeared around his legs. When the two collided, he slid backwards instead of getting knocked down.

  The charging moose, head down, was stopped in its tracks.

  “Don't make this difficult,” Cojisto grunted, his voice strained with effort. “You are not the first moose I have wrestled.” The moose bellowed, pushing against the unmoving man. “Okay, but I warned you.”

  Cojisto yelled as he turned the moose's head, planting its antler in the ground. He sidestepped and tugged. The moose, thrown off balance, fell to the ground. Letting go, Cojisto punched his fallen enemy in the chest and backed off.

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  The moose laid there, panting, before scrambling to its feet and running off in the direction it came.

  Cojisto, clapping dust from his hands, turned to me and flashed me a grin. “Such wonderful creatures, aren't they?” he asked.

  “That… wasn't Moose, was it?” I asked. Testing my wounds, I gingerly touched my chest only to suck in a pained breath. It felt like a couple of my ribs might have been broken. There was going to be a massive bruise that I wasn't looking forward to, but that was it.

  “Best not to touch that,” Cojisto warned. “I'm an expert in moose related injuries, and you took a really nasty blow there.”

  “Just assessing,” I muttered, trying not to snap. He had come to my aid and I didn't doubt his claim about injuries related to moose. I shouldn't be angry at him. “It's not as bad as I think it should have been.”

  Cojisto nodded. “You are surprisingly durable, then,” he said. “And lucky I came along. There were moose tracks so I followed them, hoping they would lead me to Moose.”

  “So that wasn't Moose, just some random moose?” I asked again. Once I was done prodding my wound, I took a closer look at Cojisto. He was wearing an outfit identical to the one Himia tried to stick me in. He, apparently, didn’t demand his back.

  Which made me wonder if Ferrisdae considered that option at all.

  “Heavens no, of course not,” Cojisto laughed. “He wasn't nearly big enough to be Moose, and his antlers were still coming in from the winter shed. That's why I could throw him around so easily.”

  “Okay, just a moose,” I said before eyeing the Human critically. “Why is your aura blue? And what's going on with that purple energy?”

  “Blue aura?” Cojisto asked, raising an eyebrow. He looked at his arms. “I don't know, I can't see any aura.”

  “There was a red one on the moose. You didn't see that, either?”

  “No, it just looked like an ordinary bull moose to me,” he replied with a frown. “Do you have a concussion? You got tossed awfully hard. Maybe you hit your head?”

  “My head is fine,” I said, and this time I did snap. But I reminded myself again that he had helped and was just concerned. Sighing, I shook my head. “What about the energy?”

  “That's a power granted by what Himia said my class update was,” Cojisto explained. He held up a hand and coated it in a weak purple light. “Arcane Wrestler, she said, with a magical affinity for force. It's all pretty intuitive, and I can use it for a variety of offensive and defensive purposes, though I'm still getting used to it. It takes a lot out of me.”

  I nodded absently. The… Information Elemental did say Cojisto's affinity was force. “You seem really calm,” I noted. “Doesn’t what Himia did piss you off?”

  Cojisto looked at the sky for a moment in thought, and then shrugged. “No, not really,” he admitted. “More power is nice, you know?”

  “And nothing about this is concerning to you?” I asked, incredulously. “Like losing your gear, or the invasive magic performed on us, or literally anything else?”

  The big dumb idiot shook his head. “No, it’s a dungeon,” Cojisto said. “So, just have to treat it like one, right? Go with the flow, roll with the punches. We’ll make it out.”

  I stared at the Human. Adventurers were a different breed, but this guy had to be one of the most laid back morons I had ever met. Instead of arguing and trying to educate him on what was undoubtedly a terrible series of events we had been put under, I changed the subject. No use teaching a wall. “We need to meet up with Ferrisdae and talk about what’s going on,” I said.

  “Ferrisdae and Moose both,” Cojisto added, emphasizing his animal friend. I rolled my eyes. “Do you know where we are?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t. I think it's some approximation of what the area the obelisk is in would look like without the blizzard, but most of the records from this area were lost so I'm not sure if there are any cities around.”

  “I did see tracks belonging to people earlier,” Cojisto claimed. “They were heading east, so there could be something there.”

  “I guess that's as good a way as any,” I said. I glanced up at the sky to tell the sun's location. Unfortunately, it was high in the sky, no way of telling which way it was going except by waiting.

  “East is this way,” Cojisto said, interrupting my thoughts. “Moose would have followed them while staying hidden, but if Ferrisdae were to see them I’m sure she’d be excited to find their camp.”

  “Alright, then let's get moving. Just be careful.” I began walking in Cojisto's offered direction, wincing with each step from the pain. I never thought I'd wish to find a magic healing moose at any point in my life, but here we were.

  After a few seconds of silence, Cojisto spoke. “So, Badger, where do you hail from?”

  I sighed. No matter how far we would travel, this was going to feel like a long trek.

  ******

  Cojisto had a disposition just as sunny as Ferrisdae’s, and while we walked he took to singing. Faintly, so as to not attract unwanted attention, but what I did manage to pick up was mostly nonsense with no real melody. Just taking note about things around us when he felt like saying them.

  My patience, already threadbare, was running thin.

  It also didn't help that the dungeon was unusually large. Dungeons didn't form in open areas, but even the ones that mirrored reality like I suspected this one did would be at most a mile wide.

  We had been walking for nearly two hours, and Cojisto stopping to collect herbs and plants every so often didn't help. I know that my legs were short and I was injured, but I had no doubts that we walked more than a mile.

  The first thing we heard, other than the sound of nature, was a hammer banging rhythmically on metal. Then, men shouting followed by dogs barking. We crested a hill to see a large wooden palisade before us.

  “See? I told you there were people in the east,” Cojisto said confidently.

  I didn't say anything in return; talking with Cojisto was only going to exacerbate my headache. Instead, I gave him a nod and started traveling around the palisade to find the entrance.

  The logs used to build the wall had seen better days, and something caught my eye. I stopped to investigate. The wood here was splintered, dented, and gouged as if something had been trying to break through. I glanced at the ground to see if there were any tracks. The needles littering the ground were snapped, I noticed.

  Brushing them away, I revealed a footprint large enough for Cojisto to lay in. It wasn’t anything humanoid. It had three toes facing towards the wall and one facing backwards.

  “It looks like a giant bird came through here,” I said, then added, “Well, that or a Dragon. It’s really surprising how similar their foot structure is to each other.”

  I turned to face Cojisto. He wasn’t paying any attention to me; he was looking upwards at the wall.

  “I agree that whatever it was is really, very big,” Cojisto confirmed, pointing towards the top of the wall.

  Looking up, I saw that the crown of the palisade had been utterly destroyed. It had to be at least thirty feet high, but the top of each log making up this portion of the wall had been removed, resulting in the structure being a few feet lower in this area. I searched for more tracks, but only managed to find one more footprint next to the original. The creature that left them hadn’t come from or gone anywhere, but if it could fly then why did it bother with the wall?

  “I think we need to head inside and get some answers,” I sighed, and we began to walk around the palisade once more.

  “I agree,” Cojisto said. “I’d like to know if we’re going to be fighting an abnormally large drake or a giant chicken.”

  “Who says we’re going to be fighting it?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “This isn’t our problem.”

  “It could be, though?” Cojisto countered. “This is not like any dungeon I’ve come across before. It’s large, and we traveled for a long time, and I have no idea where the dungeon boss is. What if it’s a giant chicken?”

  “It’s not going to be a giant chicken,” I scoffed. If I were honest with myself, those words were hesitant. Cojisto had a point; I hadn’t seen a dungeon like this before either, and I knew I had a lot more experience than he did. “If anything, it’ll be one of Razorbeak’s Avian henchmen running the show. If they could somehow grow in size, then their feet would look like that.”

  Cojisto frowned, and then released a heavy sigh. “I understand your words,” he said. “But I’m disappointed that our chances of fighting a thirty foot tall chicken are still very low. Could you imagine how great that would be?”

  “Cojisto, I don’t want to fight a thirty foot anything, why would I want to specifically fight a thirty foot tall chicken?” I asked.

  “Because it would be amazing!”

  I ran my hand over my face. We really need to find Ferrisdae, and quickly.