They had beaten a single group, and they were all tired and needed rest. Pepe felt it: his arms were tired, his legs burned from all the movement, and he was mentally drained as well. But they still had a way to go.

  “Maria, how much experience until my next level?” he asked.

  He still had a way to go. The creatures hadn’t given a great amount of experience; they would need to fight a lot to gain another level. He was behind; the others had reached level four even before coming to the dungeon. He hadn’t thought about asking Michelle what level she was. He would need to go solo or with Michelle to make up for not being there during the escort quest encounter. It had been his fault, though. He had wanted to go after the thieves when it had happened, but someone needed to stay with Miss Tebesa and protect the camp. He didn’t feel like he had been punished for his screwup back then; his biggest regret was missing out on the experience points.

  Pepe came out of his reminiscing and looked around at his friends. They were catching their breath. It had been an interesting fight and quite a bit of moving around until they figured out what to do. He was a little out of breath and took a few deep breaths to get it under control. He saw perspiration on Michelle’s lovely face, her hair a bit wet from sweating. Then he looked over at his cousin, who had his eyes closed and was in one of those stances his instructor had shown him, in a form of meditation, his breathing already under control. He would need to ask about the meditation; it seemed like something he should know. His training hadn’t included meditation.

  Pepe looked at the cavern and paid more attention to the little caves around the edges. They would need to move on to the next group and see what the composition would be—how many would come out. There was a larger exit, but getting to it would likely attract too many groups. What was in there? They either needed to go around to the left or the right. Now that they knew what to do, they would be able to beat these things easily.

  Josh went over the plan. The plan was simple: Manuel did his tank thing, and as soon as the group was under control, Pepe would jump. They would handle that one, followed by Michelle, then Bobby only in extreme emergencies. Erin would be on standby if any got away from Manuel. Any blue creatures they would handle as they had just done, with Pepe followed by Michelle. Pepe liked the plan; it was simple, and he liked simple.

  Everyone had their breathing under control and was ready to continue. Pepe was eager to start. He wasn’t a planner, even though his master had told him to make sure he had a plan. He was glad that Josh was the leader; he didn’t have to worry about these things. He was a damage dealer: point him in the direction he needed to go, and he would go. Maybe others would think him dumb for being this way, but he was far from dumb; he just wasn’t confident when put in a leadership position.

  They moved as a group to the right of the cavern and saw the next group emerge. This time, there were two red creatures and one blue one. They did their little circuit, then returned to the small cave. Minutes later, they did it again. Pepe was unsure where the invisible line they crossed to trigger their emergence was. Before they could go back in, Manuel did his thing, and they started in on that group. Pepe jumped in; they took out his target, followed by Michelle’s. They used the double jump for the blue creature and wailed on it until they saw it begin to regenerate. Then they used the double jump again, and it was down.

  The next group consisted of one of each color, and they repeated the cycle. Once again on the move, the next group was easy, with just a green and a red creature, followed by one a bit harder, as it had two blue and a green creature. This continued for three more groups: three green creatures, a blue creature and a red creature, and the final group consisted of all three colors again.

  That wasn’t bad. He was more than halfway to his next level, and they hadn’t finished yet. While there were more groups on the left, and while he wanted more experience, Josh would make the call. He was getting tired again, and they still had to face the boss for this floor, then two more floors to clear and two more bosses. It was a bad idea to be exhausted at the last boss; he needed to be at the top of his game at that point.

  It was time for a break. His friends all looked as tired as he felt; they were all sweaty from the encounters and out of breath again. By his count, they had faced nine green, six red, and five blue creatures—that was a lot of mushroom creatures. His friends had likely leveled up, if they weren’t ready to level up with the boss fight. Hopefully, he would level up during the boss fight as well.

  He went over to Josh. He really wanted to go over to Michelle, but she was talking with Manuel and Erin, and he didn’t want his cousin to start on him. Josh was with Bobby; they weren’t talking. Josh had a canteen out and was handing it to Bobby. Oh yeah, they had brought water; he needed to drink too. With the excitement, he hadn’t eaten much and had forgot to drink anything. After seeing them drink, he felt how parched his throat was. He took out his own canteen and drank, but not as much as his body probably wanted. They still had the other two floors; rationing and conserving would be a good idea.

  “Hey, Josh, Bobby, how are you guys holding up?” he asked. He noticed they looked tired. While they weren’t exerting themselves physically, he understood that the magic would take its toll on the users, and they had mana that they expended that would need to regenerate. His action points, unlike their mana, seemed to regenerate a bit faster.

  “Tired, really tired,” Bobby said. He was sitting, leaning against the cavern wall, with his eyes closed. Josh had been standing but was now sitting as well. Pepe sat next to him.

  “Yeah, this stuff is tiring. We’ll have to get used to it. Hopefully, as time goes by, it will get easier.” Josh took another drink. “I don’t think I want us to do the other side. That’s a lot of work, and I want to see what’s beyond that cavern—hopefully, the boss for this floor.” Pepe hoped the same; he wanted to see what it had in store for them.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Pepe was pumped to get going. Josh had called the break over, and they were up and moving toward the large cave exit. They were going to ignore the creatures on the left side of the cavern. Pepe, smiling, walked on, ready to get to the boss. Maybe he shouldn’t be as excited as he was, but he couldn’t help himself.

  The move from the large chamber through the exit cave was maybe fifty yards. They stopped at the entrance; they had zero clue what would trigger the next encounter. This other cavern was smaller than the one they had just left. Directly across from them was another exit. It was dark, and they couldn’t see through the darkness. It was quite high and wide; he himself wouldn’t be able to touch the top. Maybe Josh or Manuel could touch the top if they jumped with their arms stretched out.

  Around the chamber itself, Pepe noticed a set of mushroom steps sticking out of the wall, one set on the left wall and the other on the right wall, and four much larger mushrooms toward the center, evenly spaced from each other. The stalks of the four center mushrooms were like giant tree trunks; it would probably take four of them reaching hands to surround a stalk. The bottoms of the caps could be seen high up, twenty feet up, with likely another five or more feet above that for the tops of the caps.

  They stepped into the chamber, and before taking their third step, they received a notification.

  “All right, everyone, get ready. We’ll need to move these things around a little to see what our best position will be. From what we saw of the little ones, there are some kind of mechanics involved with every fight,” Josh said.

  Pepe’s heart started to hammer. They spread out in a formation similar to what they had done before. Manuel moved up front, Pepe went to the right and behind him, Michelle on the left, Erin to Pepe’s right, and Josh to the left of Michelle. It was an inverted V formation. Bobby would stay behind, close enough to heal but far enough away to be less of a target.

  He looked around and saw everyone ready to face the thing that would be coming out. The countdown was down to ten seconds. His heart started to beat a little faster, with eager anticipation. Then it was down to zero. Movement could be seen at the large exit opposite them. Smaller mushroom creatures came out—two red and two green ones—and aligned themselves on the right and left, one of each color on either side.

  Pepe saw the boss emerge, the top of its head reaching the top of the cave it was exiting. It was another mushroom, but to call it a mushroom would be an understatement. It was a mushroom on steroids; it was huge. Just like its smaller counterparts, it didn’t have eyes, ears, or a nose, but it did have a mouth—a very large mouth. It could easily fit Pepe inside. Just like its mouth, it had large, pointy teeth—very pointy. “What large teeth you have, Grandma,” he thought, for some reason thinking about the story of Red Riding Hood and the wolf as he saw those teeth.

  His daggers would serve as small toothpicks; even Manuel’s longer sword would only be big enough to serve as a large toothpick. How in the world were they supposed to defeat this thing? Since it was much larger, its mode of movement involved six large legs sticking out from the bottom of the stalk. Its legs went up, bent at the “knee,” then came back down, like an insect’s leg. They were also skinny; he didn’t think they were strong enough to carry the monstrosity, but it moved just fine. Another example of how this world broke the rules.

  “Maria, what can you tell me about this boss?” he asked. He needed more information, and the only source would be Maria.

  Boss Shroomy seemed like a very caring shroom; ah, well, what one did for the loot. Well, there wasn’t anything of much use in that blurb. He guessed that if he wanted to give Shroomy a gift, it could be something blue. He had been hoping for some information that would help them in the fight.

  It had long, very long, skinny arms but no hands. They looked like long vines. The mushroom boss’s vine-like arms waved in the air; maybe it was saying hi to its dinner. Pepe wasn’t going to stand and be its dinner. He saw the timer slowly ticking away; they had to come up with a plan, and now.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  “Manuel, get ready. We’ll play this by ear; we don’t really have a choice,” Josh said.

  That was it? That was the great plan? It was something Pepe himself would come up with. He was expecting Josh to devise a great master plan to defeat this thing. By ear it would be, then. He felt ready; he hoped he was.

  It felt like what you see in the movies or shows when the doctor tells the patient, “We are going to put you to sleep. Please count back from ten.” Instead of Pepe going to sleep, his adrenaline spiked, his heart beating faster, feeling like it would burst out of his chest. His reflexes sped up; he felt other things slow down around him. Manuel went forward and taunted the boss. Pepe saw the thing open its mouth and roar—it actually roared. He saw spittle flying from its mouth as it roared, its long red tongue moving with the force of the roar.

  Seconds after its roar, it picked up its pace, running at Manuel. It reached his cousin and pushed him back three feet. Manuel had his feet planted, his body forward, and his shield ready to take the impact; he didn’t topple over. “This thing hits like a dump truck. But I’ve got it for now,” Manuel said. The thing towered over his cousin. How he had it, Pepe didn’t really understand, but if he said he had it, then he had it.

  The boss backed up momentarily, saw its prey hadn’t toppled over as it probably expected, and seemed confused that the little thing in front of it still stood. Its long, skinny arms started to move like waves, then one came forward. Pepe saw his cousin raise his shield to block the incoming slap of the whip-like arm. No, the little meat thing in front of it was still standing. The other arm started to wave as well, then came forward, and again it was blocked. It continued with the whipping action of each arm against its opponent, speeding up each time.

  Pepe heard the slap of the whip-like arms against Manuel’s shield. It was loud, and he could only imagine the speed and strength behind each slap. He was impressed by his cousin’s ability to keep up with the thing, even going in with his sword as he blocked the slaps. This all happened within the first few seconds of the fight. While it seemed slower to Pepe’s senses, and likely to Michelle’s and Erin’s, neither Bobby nor Josh experienced it that way.

  Pepe looked for the helpers around the Shroom Boss. They hadn’t attacked when the boss attacked, merely staying behind him. Why were they just standing there? He wasn’t sure how they communicated—maybe some form of hive mind like insects. When they had fought the smaller ones, they had been in sync the whole time, but he heard no words to indicate that they spoke to each other.

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  Pepe went around to just behind the last set of legs on the right. He saw Michelle position herself on the left, and they both started to damage the creature. He saw his dagger making contact, the mushroom’s soft skin parting with every one of his dagger’s slashes. He waited a few seconds before attacking again and saw no regeneration like what they had experienced with the smaller ones. So, the boss had no self-healing capabilities—that was a good thing. He redoubled his efforts to do as much damage as possible.

  His friends, for their part, were doing the same. He saw the boss marked by Erin’s skill, the mark showing on his GUI. Arrows flew in and stuck out of the creature’s sides. He presumed Josh was casting his magic spells on the other side. Finally, after a time, they got their first notification.

  Pepe was ecstatic to see that the thing was taking damage; this was going to be easy. They could just pull out all the stops and burn it down. He was so happy to see the notification that he smiled to himself, looked up a little, and then saw it. Red and green mist was coming down from both sides. Oh no, not that. The follow-up message changed his earlier elation to worry. This was going to be a lot harder than he had thought.

  He couldn’t really see his other friends, but he saw Michelle on the other side grimace when the notification popped up. What worried him even more was the second notification. He knew about the Regeneration healing effects, but the Damage Up buff was from the green mist. He was glad they hadn’t allowed the mushroom creatures to use the skill during the other fights.

  “Pepe, Erin, go take care of the ones on the right. Michelle, you and I will take care of the ones on the left. We won’t be able to win this fight if we don’t take them down first,” Josh directed. They needed to do this fast. If they gave the mushroom creatures any time, they would surely attack them. The Damage Up buff was active for all of them, not just the boss. He and the rest could handle some hits, but not many. This would only distract Bobby and get Manuel hurt, as he would need to send some heals their way.

  Pepe turned and saw his targets. Seconds later, a mark appeared on the green creature. “Got you, Erin. Once you jump on that one, I’ll get the red,” he said. He just wanted a little coordination before he went and screwed things up. He saw his friend land on the green creature and was in the air, coming down seconds later, landing on top of the red creature’s cap, smashing it and stopping all actions.

  He hit the ground and turned to the green creature. Both he and Erin began to take it down, waiting for the notification that it was down. He saw it appear, and they both turned to the red creature. Seconds later, it popped. While they had damaged it, they would need to do a second round. “I got it,” he said. He went up into the air once more, landed on the red creature, and reset to burn it down. They saw the notification that one of the other creatures was down and then got the notification that theirs was down.

  He turned to see if the one that was still alive was squashed, ready to assist the other group. He saw Michelle come down, but before she landed, it had already moved. Not only was it up and buffed, but it was also loose. The creature had gone underneath Michelle as she landed, just barely missing her. He saw it run around to the left of the boss; he had no way to see if it was going for Bobby or Josh. Everything was moving too fast. He heard Bobby yell in pain; his friend was hurt. The yell and the notification that followed made it worse.

  That was mucho malo; they couldn’t have their healer down for that long. Both Pepe and Erin ran behind Shroomy to try and help. As he came around, he saw Bobby on the ground; he was moving a little. Michelle had already smashed the loose mushroom creature and was starting to damage it to finish it off, with Erin sending arrows flying. A whole minute and a half—they had no heals at all for that time. The next notification was even worse.

  He saw the notification for the last mushroom helper being out of the fight, then another message: another hit on his cousin. While the damage was minor, he was worried for him. At least the helpers were down; once Bobby was back up, he could heal. There was still more than a minute before Bobby would be ready to do anything; he had to heal both himself and his cousin at that point.

  He saw Josh picking up Bobby. He could do nothing on that front; he needed to get back to doing damage. His cousin was taking a beating while they waited. He ran back behind Shroomy and continued to inflict as much damage as possible, with Michelle doing the same.

  “How’s Bobby, Josh?” he called out. While it wasn’t quite time, he was worried for his friend.

  “He’s fine. Just keep going. I’ve got Bobby,” Josh replied. He could see no smoke or smell of freshly burned mushroom, meaning that both Bobby and Josh were out of the equation. They needed Josh’s spell damage; they were down to three out of four damage dealers right now. All this would do was prolong the fight; prolonging it wouldn't give them any advantage at all.

  The time passed slowly, and he could do nothing to help his friend but wait and continue what he was currently doing. He saw another hit notification for Manuel.

  While it may not seem like much, his cousin was taking a beating. He was glad his cousin could hold his own with the giant mushroom. He, on the other hand, would likely be dead by now. Not only did Manuel have higher HP, but he also had damage mitigation skills that came with being a tank. Pepe didn’t feel jealous; he liked doing lots of damage and not getting hit.

  “Bobby is up and able to stand on his own; he’s almost ready!” Josh reported to the rest of the group. Michelle could see them, but the others couldn’t. Pepe was glad to hear his friend was up and about; they would be dead in the water if their healer went down. He wasn’t eager to find out what the death penalties were that Regi had alluded to in his explanation—not that he had actually said what they were, just that they wouldn’t like them.

  Pepe finally saw some smoke, followed by the smell of cooked mushroom—a cheesy smell, sort of like the way his funky feet smelled after a soccer match. At least Josh was damaging it with his spells. Enough worrying; we’ve got this. All right, Shroomy, your butt is ours. Did mushrooms have butts? Why was he asking stupid questions right now? Head in the game, Pepe! He would leave the deep philosophical butt question for later.

  The notification came that the boss was down to sixty-five percent of his HP. Yay! was all Pepe could think at that moment. He kept going, his friends doing the same. The notification that he was at fifty percent came soon after. After he saw the fifty percent notification, two things happened: the timer on Bobby’s stun ailment was up, and Shroomy stopped wailing on Manuel. Pepe was relieved that his friend was well again and that, for the moment, the boss had stopped, giving him and his friends time to catch their breath.

  For five seconds, the boss did nothing. Pepe and the rest continued to inflict damage during this time. Then it started to move again, but not to attack Manuel. Pepe saw the huge form start to turn to the right and saw Michelle jumping out of the way; the legs would have crushed her if she hadn’t moved. He stopped to see why it was doing this and backed off as it kept turning.

  It stopped after completing a one-eighty and started to move back toward the exit cave. Wait, did we beat it? It still has fifty percent of its HP. He saw it stop in front of its fallen brethren, one of its vine-like arms going down toward one of the dead mushrooms. He saw it pick the mushroom up and deposit it into its mouth, hearing it chewing. The sounds of teeth ripping and chewing were not pleasant. He saw it pick up the other mushroom and start the same process. He couldn’t see if it did the same with the one on its left side, but he presumed that it had.

  It started to turn back toward the left and moved over to the last of its cohorts, eating it as well. What the heck was it doing? Why would it eat its own friends? Seconds later, they knew; another notification came up, letting them know what was happening.

  Pepe really hated that mushroom right now. Why couldn’t it just die and drop the loot? What does it have in store for us now? He saw no difference in the mushroom until he looked up and saw what had happened with the little guys it had eaten. Atop the big cap, they were sticking up; it had consumed them and then made them grow on itself. Why, Shroomy, why? You’re supposed to be against mushroom-on-mushroom violence, you liar!

  “All right, reset, everyone. We have to keep him contained as before. Manuel, do your stuff!” Josh commanded.

  Yes, it was time to end this. Pepe was tired of this boss’s cheats. He was supposed to be the one with the cheats. Where were his cheats?! He heard Manuel perform his taunt, and Boss Shroomy ran to attack his cousin.

  They started to pour out the damage and saw the notification that the boss was at sixty percent. Pepe saw the mushroom stop its attack, then saw the red mist. Crap! So that’s why it had eaten its friends; it was self-healing and self-buffing. Shortly after the red mist, they saw the green mist. It was followed by the whip-like arms coming back and then forward at an even faster speed than before.

  The notification came through; he read it and saw his cousin had taken damage. At the speed the arms were moving with that last attack, it was likely that his cousin was only able to block one of them. They needed to suppress the caps that had grown atop Shroomy.

  He turned to Michelle and saw that she was trying hard but also saw the concern on her face. “Michelle, let’s go up,” he said, pointing to the big mushrooms in the center. He saw her nod; they were on the same page. “Josh, we’re going up. We need to stomp the buffers,” he called out. Pepe ran toward one of the central mushrooms, while he saw Michelle run toward another. “Manuel, move him toward the center!” he yelled.

  He ran up the right side, reached the top of the stairs, and began jumping, then executed a hard jump to one of the large mushrooms. He landed and saw Michelle land on the opposite one. It wasn’t quite in place, but his cousin was moving it, so they would be ready. As he saw the large mushroom in position, he looked over at Michelle and nodded. They both began to jump up and down, trampoline-style. “[Jump],” he triggered the skill, and down he went. Across from him, Michelle was coming down as well.

  He landed on the red cap sticking out of Shroomy’s head, then jumped off, ran back to the stairs, and, as before, came back down to land on top of the green cap. He was glad that he wasn’t afraid of heights; if he had been, they would have been hosed. There was little to no time to think further. He started attacking Shroomy once again. He felt tired; his arms felt like jelly, but there was no time to rest.

  He heard Erin from behind him, “Going up!” That was good, Pepe thought; they needed to make sure that the boss didn’t use the skills again as soon as the red and green mushrooms popped up. It would also be good for Erin to shoot from up there; it was technically a better vantage point. He saw a mark appear on Shroomy, and then a rain of arrows.

  A notification came through that the boss was down to fifty percent. The boss stopped again and attempted to perform its mist skill, but it didn’t work. Pepe could clearly see that the large mushroom was confused. It tried again, as it hadn’t returned to attack his cousin. Too bad, Shroomy! He redoubled his efforts in his attacks.

  “Michelle, go up, just in case!” Josh was right; it was better safe than sorry. His damage output was probably slightly higher than Michelle’s, and he likely wouldn’t do as well from up top. Pepe, Erin, and Michelle were probably the best options, with their higher Agility scores. While Josh could rain down spells from up high, it would probably be harder for him to get up there in the first place.

  Pepe just kept wailing on the boss. He saw the notification for forty-five percent, then forty percent. He saw Erin jump on top of Shroomy, and as soon as he saw that, he ran up his side of the stairs. He saw Erin quickly run to the other side, as Michelle was still on her way down. Pepe was already in position; he jumped down onto the green cap. He saw Erin come down from the other side; everyone was back on the ground, damaging the boss once again.

  The notification for thirty percent came across, then they were down to twenty-five, twenty, and fifteen percent. It was truly time to end this. Finally, the boss was at five percent. It had taken a long time; he was exhausted. While the adrenaline had done its thing, he was on the downslope now.

  He was happy that he had leveled up. If he had leveled, his friends had gone up to level six. He might have been tired, but he was excited about this. Now, where is my loot? He saw the body of Big Shroomy start to sink into the ground as if it were just melting. It was kind of crazy that they did that, but who was he to complain? He wouldn’t want to be part of the cleanup crew for the dungeon if the creatures didn’t disappear like that.

  As soon as the boss disappeared, it was like someone had turned on the lights for the exit cave. Further in the cave, on top of a table or altar, Pepe saw what he had wanted the whole time. Two chests were waiting for them. Yes, finally, the loot! Why else do these dungeons? Sure, the experience was good, but it was about the loot drops.

  But he was too tired to move right now. They needed a little downtime. They might have been doing what looked like a video game, but unlike one where your character never got tired, they did get tired. They all just sat on the ground where they had been standing. They had defeated the boss for the first floor, and that was cause for celebration. And they were getting the loot, and that, too, was cause for celebration. But he heard no whoops or cheers of joy from any of them; all he heard was his own heavy breathing and that of his friends.

  No one moved for fifteen minutes; they just rested, ate, and drank from their canteens. If this were a story, no one would want to hear how tired he was; they wouldn’t care. But dang it, he was tired, and this was his story. He got up and stretched. His arms hurt, his back hurt; he wanted some good food from Mr. Rowen’s Inn. He bet they were cooking something delicious. He heard his stomach rumble in agreement, but food would have to wait.

  He started to make his way to the exit, where he could see the chests waiting for them, waiting for him—at least he hoped that was the case. Like in games, not everyone would get loot. His friends weren’t saying anything but were also moving toward the exit, all with their eyes on the chests. All this hard work, and now it would pay off. He really hoped that he would get something.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  “Settle down. We’ll open it up in a second,” Josh said, taking charge. Pepe was so eager that if they made him wait any longer, he would just move people out of the way and open the damn thing himself. It was the one on the left that they opened first. There was a light as Josh opened the chest; when it was fully open, the light died out. He pulled out a nice-looking leather chest piece and a set of trousers that looked like a matching pair. Both seemed to be made of some soft leather and were a muted green color. What they were wearing—he, Erin, and Michelle—was the same basic gray-colored trousers and top: the beginner set.

  “Yes!” Pepe couldn’t help himself. They would need to figure it out; both he and Erin could use it, but the leg guard was clearly meant for him, while the chest piece might go to Erin. He was all right with sharing.

  “We’ll figure it out in town. Let’s look and see what the other chest has,” Josh said. He opened it, and they got the light show once again. Pepe saw Josh reach in, then quickly pull his hand back out. His face even got a little red. “Um, Michelle, can you come and look, please?”

  He backed up and allowed her to come forward. Pepe saw a look of confusion on her face. He was confused as well. Why did she need to look? She looked, reached in, and brought out what was there. It looked like only a swimsuit. No one said anything; no one laughed. You could hear a pin drop in the silence. He saw Michelle’s face; it was very red—it almost matched the color of her hair. Man, was she mad.

  “What the hell? First the dress, now this? I am going to murder those two nodes when I see them!” She put the “armor” away in her bag. She would get to bring her complaints to the two nodes in question very soon. She turned to the party. “Not a word. Not one word from any of you.” Pepe couldn’t look her in the eye; he noticed that neither could his friends.

  Pepe looked at the stats on his GUI for the armor she had put away:

  It was identical to the male version they had just gotten from the other chest. He did not want to be in the nodes’ shoes once she got ahold of them. Sure, she would have looked great in the swimsuit-like armor if this were a beach resort, the beach, or the river they had gone swimming in, but he wasn’t stupid; he wasn’t going to bring that up.

  Once they had gathered the loot and closed the chests, a rectangular outline of light could be seen on the wall behind the chests. In less than a second, a door appeared where none had been before. Above the door was a sign that read “EXIT.” The door was red, not unlike what you would find at a house, with a simple silver or steel-colored knob. Josh walked to the door, opened it, and behind it was the locker room they had exited at the beginning of the dungeon—or maybe it was another locker room. Who knew?