“Idiot! You made me lose.”

  “I could have won if not for you.”

  “As if, you were-huh, is this right?”

  “I…I don’t think so. This doesn’t look-”

  * * * *

  Frey and I moved quickly to the second floor, motivated by the desire to find Astrid above and avoid Violet below. After defeating Hodi and Lucus easily, Violet was likely not far behind us. And as we hadn’t seen any evidence of Astrid since her encounter with Lock, I was beginning to fear the worst. Even a guild leader had limits, and this Lock person wasn’t holding back.

  This trial is more intense than I ever expected. We have to get to the top and end this!

  As if in response to my thought, Frey pulled himself up the threads and over the edge to the second floor.

  “Woah…climbing up those things never gets any easier…” Frey said, panting heavily. Hoping for a moment to collect our thoughts, we instead saw immediately that there would be no rest here.

  Within the hallway across from us was another tamer: Braum. If his monster was out of its arsenal egg, I couldn’t see it. And it didn’t seem like he needed a monster. Braum, the muscular lion-looking tamer, was ripping apart a golem with his bare hands.

  “Ahaha! You’re nothing before my strength. With arms like these, who else could apprentice to our leader?” Braum said and flexed his muscles in several practiced poses while still holding parts of the defeated golem. He didn’t seem to notice us, so he was both speaking and posing to no one in particular.

  With me still on his shoulder, Frey immediately got up and began tip-toeing away as quietly as he could, lest he become Braum’s next target.

  That’s good, let’s get out of here before he notices-

  “Don’t take another step!” Braum yelled out as he turned around to look directly at Frey. He tossed aside the pieces of the golem, his muscles flexing with each movement of his body. “No prey can escape the lion’s gaze. Not today. This trial is my chance to stand by my hero’s side. I will be Meebur’s apprentice!” The absolutely massive and intimidating tamer suddenly began blushing as he said Meebur’s name. “Ahhh, I can’t believe I’m going to be trained by Meebur every day. I’m sooo excited!”

  I still can’t believe this big guy is such a fanboy…

  “But if I want to get closer to my Meebur, I need to get through you. And some scrawny little tamer is no match for me and my monster!” Braum struck a pose that both showed off his arms and also displayed his mark of the beast. Which was glowing a dark orange, the same color of the arena that began to spread around us.

  I looked at Frey, and tried to exude all of the confidence I could. We couldn’t lose here. We had to find Astrid, see if she was alright, and defeat this mysterious Lock. As far as I could hear, no one else was around us. If Violet was climbing up to the second floor, she wasn’t anywhere near the top yet. For the first time since we arrived at the dungeon, this was a fair, uninterrupted one-on-one challenge. A perfect chance to prove ourselves.

  If I could make you as confident as I am, I would, I thought as I looked at Frey before jumping off of his shoulder and into the arena.

  This trial really was a marathon, not a sprint, as I still felt some weariness from the battles on the first floor. Though much of the damage had been healed thanks to arenas, that didn’t stop exhaustion from building. And my concern for Astrid’s safety was weighing on me almost as much as the bulk brace was.

  Once I entered the arena, Braum threw out his arsenal egg. It cracked open, revealing the last monster I ever expected a massive lion-looking bodybuilder to have.

  It was a mouse.

  Not a colorful mouse.

  Not a mouse with a sword.

  Not a mouse the size of a house.

  Just a mouse.

  Is that really a monster?

  But a text box popping up proved that the small brown rodent was, indeed, a monster.

  Species - Cheep, the Meek Mouse

  Type - Earth > Forest > Field

  Rank - B

  Level - ??

  Title - “Athletic”

  Tamer - Braum

  Status - Normal

  Skills - ??

  Even in my cute form, I towered over the mouse. A memory flooded my brain of watching something called a “nature documentary” where snakes easily hunted defenseless mice. Something I feared Frey and Braum were about to have front row seats to.

  “I can see it in the snake’s eyes, you think my monster is weak.” Braum said. “Don’t underestimate Cheep! He’s got the strength of a thousand mice!”

  Is that a lot?

  I was uncertain how to approach a fight with a mouse. In particular, I was worried about somehow actually killing it. Even with the arena’s healing properties around us. But Cheep didn’t give me much time to worry. With a speed beyond anything I had seen from a monster or golem before, the mouse burst forward and slammed itself into me. With a simple shoulder tackle attack, it knocked me into the wall and I saw my HP drop almost as much as from Violet’s Wisteria Wolf. If not for my skill, I knew I would have been coughing up blood.

  You have successfully learned the skill

  Remaining empty skill slots: 47

  Suddenly, the power and speed of the mouse made sense. Taking the briefiest of moments to read the Almanac entry on the skill, I realized this was going to be a harder fight than I thought. , a combo skill of and , increased the user’s physical stats in proportion to how much smaller they were than their enemy. And my cute form dwarfed the little mouse.

  For the first time I’m actually happy to not be able to grow to my full size.

  With just enough time to close the text box and realize how screwed I was, the inappropriately named Meek Mouse attacked again. With the smallest of margins, I was able to dodge out of the way. Cheep slammed into the wall where I had been, demolishing it like it was paper.

  “What kind of mouse is that?” Frey yelled out, his fear of small cute monsters boiling up from within him.

  “The kind that will win me the apprentice trial!” Braum said with a laugh that echoed through the dungeon.

  Not if I can help it.

  The skill was powerful, but it took me only a few moments to see its flaw. It was unfortunate that Cheep faced off against me. I had the perfect skill to defeat it. And it was the very first combo skill I had created!

  I used , the skill that I had used to create my cute form, to alter it ever so slightly. To be precise, I made my cute form even smaller. So small that I was now exactly the same size as Braum’s mouse.

  Dang, I was kind of hoping the bulk brace would slide off me when I did this, I thought as I looked at how the stellar raiment had shrunk to change size with me.

  Cheep tried to attack me seconds after I activated the skill, but their speed and power were now noticeably weaker. I slithered out of the way with ease, and took their surprise as my chance to strike back.

  Using and , I coiled myself up and shot forward like a shotgun of fangs. Despite now being as small as a mouse, the extra momentum gave me all the force I needed. Cheep, with their stats no longer increased by , fainted from a single hit.

  The Meek Mouse was knocked out of the monster arena, landing by his tamer’s feet. Braum returned him to an arsenal egg, his head hung down in disbelief.

  “Wow…you’re stronger than I expected.” Braum lifted his head, his eyes gleaming in admiration. “You have potential, scrawny boy and small snake! When this is all over, I hope to see you both in my morning weightlifting class!”

  Braum, as per the rules of the trial, took out his escape button. Normally it needed to be pressed to activate, but as per the modifications Meebur made for the trial, it automatically started glowing as Braum’s arena dissipated. Since he had lost an official arena battle, the escape button would take him back to the entrance of the dungeon and out of the trial.

  In a flash of light, he was gone, leaving Frey and I to bask in our first victory.

  And also in the fear that Braum would get his revenge by forcing us to exercise until we died.

  * * * *

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Wow, that snake thing’s no joke! Frey was better than I thought too. It’s kinda impressive he can work with such a strong monster. It makes me think I might…kinda…like-wait, what’s going on?”

  * * * *

  With Braum defeated, his escape button teleported him back to the dungeon entrance with Gregory, where I assumed Hodi and Lucus were also waiting. Once he was gone, Frey and I moved away from the entrance into the second floor as fast as we could. And with much more apprehension and caution too. These battles were taking their toll on me, and I feared for our chances should we come across too many enemies at once.

  My health recovered after the fight with Braum, but the more skills I used, the less stamina I had. Though I had a large pool of EP, I had used a lot of skills since entering the trial. Considering it was necessary to use so much energy in every encounter because of the bulk brace, I didn’t even consider saving strength to fight Meebur. I needed every bit I had to even get us there.

  Current EP = 535/780

  This cautious and speedy approach proved correct as we were able to avoid more fights than we had on the first floor. Perched on Frey’s shoulder, I focused entirely on sensing the enemies around us, guiding us up the tower as carefully as possible. Whenever there was a golem we couldn’t avoid, I tried to position us so I could strike it down with a single or from a distance. It felt like we were ants trying to navigate a maze of anteaters. We couldn’t rush towards the boss room like we had with Meebur and Astrid. We had to move strategically.

  With Violet likely close behind us, and Lock and Astrid somewhere ahead, we need to be as careful with my stamina as possible. And Frey’s too.

  My temporary tamer was seriously starting to show the stress of the trial. The sling that held Frey’s egg across his chest and the bag of meager supplies on his back both seemed to be getting harder and harder for him to carry. I had to spend less time on his shoulder, just so it was easier for him to walk through the labyrinthian dungeon.

  No more evidence was there that this was a marathon then when we needed to camp out for the night. We had been moving up the tower at a steady pace for hours, but Frey couldn’t go one more step. The last time we were here, we reached the boss room in what felt like no time. But now, moving slowly up with potential enemies all around us, we still had one floor left after an entire day of travel. But Frey couldn’t keep going. We had to rest.

  “Ok, let’s get you nice and comfy,” Frey said to his egg as he set up a portable nest for it before doing anything else. It was kind how he prioritized the protection of his egg. I really did feel bad for him. Most new tamers would have been able to dedicate weeks to the care of their first egg and hatchling. Yet, here was Frey, having to carry it through an extremely dangerous place.

  I’m sure Meebur has his reasons, but this feels like a lot to ask of him.

  I watched over Frey as he set up camp, and happily partook in some fullfeed and water. Thanks to my skill I didn’t absolutely need to rest, so I could keep watch while Frey did. Unfortunately, it seemed like my EP wasn’t recharging while I forced myself to stay awake using the skill. But I didn’t have much choice. Frey passed out in his bedroll the second he ensured the comfort of his egg and that I had been fed. He was exhausted. If an enemy, like Lock, attacked him in the night, something told me he would sleep right through it.

  And after a few hours of rest, I was grateful he was such a deep sleeper.

  Within the hallway next to us, I sensed something. Something I had sensed both in the moment before Astrid was attacked, and in the moments before the Harrowhawk nearly killed me.

  It was bloodlust.

  Pure and intense desire fueling violence. My instinct told me it was Lock, but it felt far worse than when they had attacked Astrid. Whoever this person was, something was pulling them deeper and deeper into darkness. Their presence felt more dangerous than ever.

  I had to do something to hide Frey and I, as I felt confident I couldn’t withstand such fury and strength in battle while under the effects of the bulk brace. And it felt like it would be a battle for our lives. Afterall, Lock hadn’t battled Astrid using monsters with the safety net of an arena. They had fought her to kill.

  Recalling the Earth Deity’s ability to learn any skill within the Earth monster type, I remembered one skill I recently acquired that could hide us. I used the skill I had seen Hodi’s monster use: .

  As my temporary tamer slept soundly next to his egg, I quickly hid Frey and I between two illusory walls. Which was all I could manage to create as I didn’t have any experience with this skill, unlike Hodi’s nameless Fiend Fox. It made the little fox monster’s creation of at least a dozen walls that much more impressive.

  These two illusory walls would have to be enough because I felt the furious presence get closer. There was no time to try anything else, lest they sense my use of a skill. Holding my breath, I hoped beyond hope that they would pass us by.

  I heard footsteps outside of the illusory walls, slowly walking only a few meters away. Their breathing was shallow and deep, like a beast fighting exhaustion while hunting for its next meal.

  But after a few minutes, the presence did exactly what I had hoped: it left us alone.

  Whether they noticed us or not, whether they were Lock or not, they didn’t stop. From the sound of their footsteps, they moved at a steady pace in the direction of the thread room that led to the boss above.

  Once they were out of ear shot, and I couldn’t sense the presence anymore, I lowered the walls and woke Frey up by nudging his side. I couldn’t tell him what had happened, but when he awoke and looked at me, he saw the concern in my eyes.

  “W-which way should we go?” He asked immediately, and began to pack up our things. I couldn’t speak to him, but when I slithered forward, Frey followed me with absolute trust in my judgment. He didn’t need to know the details. Only that we had no choice but to move towards the final floor.

  But, hopefully, using a different route than that angry presence…

  * * * *

  We continued through the penultimate floor of the dungeon, taking the long way to the thread room. I hoped to steer us away from the angry presence I assumed to be Lock. Frey and I moved as quickly as we dared, avoiding and fighting golems when necessary. Without Meebur guiding us through the dungeon on the most optimal route, we encountered far more enemies than we had the first time we were here. The Map tab of my menu didn’t seem to populate the interior of dungeons, so we had to navigate on memory alone.

  At least I’m getting a lot of practice with my skills…

  Eventually, we reached the thread room, which was luckily empty, and began climbing up to the final floor. Taking our time, both of us were nervous about what we might soon encounter. After a slow climb and then a cautious walk away from the top of the threads, we entered a hallway that I remembered eventually led to the boss room itself.

  But we weren’t the only ones there.

  I felt something approaching us. A familiar presence.

  And I couldn’t believe what it was.

  Don’t run, Frey! I thought with intensity, hoping my temporary tamer would somehow hear me. But the second he saw what turned the corner, his eyes went wide and his legs began to shake.

  It was a bunny.

  An adorable, pink, fluffy bunny.

  It was the same species of monster Frey had run from when Meebur and I first met him. But this one was wearing the smallest little backpack I had ever seen, making it even cuter. Which somehow scared Frey that much more.

  “AHHHH!!!!” Frey yelled out, nearly crushing his egg as he tripped over his own feet turning to run.

  Though it didn’t look threatening, I still moved into position in front of Frey to defend him. But in doing so, I saw there was someone else with the bunny. Moving slowly behind it was a familiar face. It was Nanna, the older tamer who ran the Artemis Guild shop.

  Species - Sansom, the Bouncy Bunny

  Type - Earth > Forest > Field

  Rank - E

  Level - ??

  Title - “Thrifty”

  Tamer - Nanna the Keeper

  Status - Normal

  Skills - ??

  “Help!” she called out. “I need help over here. And I'm willing to pay for it!”

  If Nanna is willing to spend her own money, this must be really serious.

  Once Frey realized it wasn't a wild bunny monster that could do any number of terrifying things (like sit there being adorable), he stood up and moved towards Nanna. Although I was curious how she had given a name to her lowly E-ranked bunny, there was no time to think about that. We moved quickly to do what we could to help her.

  The day in the dungeon had clearly been difficult for her too, as she was visibly exhausted. Even so, Nanna guided Frey and I towards someone I was very happy to see, even in such dire condition.

  It was Astrid.

  And her pink and white robes were slashed, ripped, and covered in what I knew was dry blood.

  I didn't wait to hear any details. However her fight with Lock ended, she had gotten away and somehow made it up to the final floor.

  Further evidence to never underestimate a guild leader. Anyone else would have pressed their escape button and fled.

  I slithered towards Astrid and happily spent some energy using on her. But it didn’t seem to alleviate much of the pain or damage. There were clearly limitations with this skill. It was only level one, after all.

  Astrid was propped up against the dungeon wall. While she wasn't unconscious, she was struggling to keep her eyes open.

  “Something isn’t right about this trial.” Nanna said, kneeling next to Astrid. “I was in the guild when the last apprentice trial took place many years ago. Long before Meebur took over as leader. It was intense, and the tamers fought to the last, but it was nothing like this. I don’t know what wicked influence has fallen upon us, but whatever it is, it has a serious hold on Lock in particular.”

  At mention of the name, Astrid's eyes opened fully and she forced herself to sit up. Frey was nearby, keeping an eye out for any enemy that aimed to take advantage of our weakened position. He was learning from my example.

  “They weren’t like this when I was in the guild,” Astrid said, struggling to pull herself to her feet. She tried to straighten out her robe but only managed to tear another piece of it off. The beautiful silk was torn to shreds in several places.

  “Lock wasn’t like this when I saw them last month.” Nanna said. “I’m not concerned for Meebur’s safety should Lock reach him, but still, we should call off the trial. This isn’t safe, and certainly not what our guild leader had in mind when he gave us this trial.”

  Astrid didn't need to speak to agree with Nanna. Her injuries were evidence enough. Lock had taken the trial too far. Hodi had agreed to work with Lock, but even he couldn’t have realized what lengths they would go to. This had to stop.

  “I'll use my escape button and inform Gregory. He'll know what to do. You should do the same.” Nanna said to Astrid. “You need proper care. My Sansom's haversack has a lot of supplies, but nothing that can cure damage like this.”

  “Alright…” Astrid said through gritted teeth. It was frustrating for her to admit, but in her current state she would only be a burden.

  “And you two,” Nanna said to Frey and I, “should get to Meebur as soon as you can. He needs to know what’s become of this trial.”

  Without even looking at each other, Frey and I nodded. We knew it was what had to be done.

  Nanna smirked, and pulled something out of her bunny monster's magical haversack, which she revealed to us was called the ‘pack of portals’. There were markings on the bag that reminded me of the bulk brace, which made me wonder if it was also a stellar raiment.

  I wonder how many dungeons you have seen, Nanna?

  The experienced tamer handed us two potions. Ones that would have cost quite a bit to buy in her shop. Frey looked ecstatic to see them. These weren’t some cheap, low quality potions.

  “Take these. You'll need them.” Frey grabbed both, grinning at the senior tamer. She smiled back with as much warmth as one could give in this situation. I could tell it calmed Frey down to know that the guild had his back. But cutting right into that warm moment, Nanna exclaimed, “You can pay for them after the trial!”

  “Wait! No, I can’t-”

  Before Frey could tell her how broke he was, Nanna activated her escape button. She and her monster, Sansom, disappeared in a puff of white light.

  Astrid laughed, but immediately grabbed her sides. “Damn Nanna…she knows it hurts for me to laugh…”

  With a pained smile, Astrid pulled out her escape button.

  THWOCK

  But before she could press the button, it was knocked out of her hand by an arrow that neither she nor I had seen coming.

  PATREON