As soon as the main cavern came into focus I ran to Merchant Meeks’ desk and slapped it.

  He closed his book and looked at me expectantly.

  “Why didn't you tell me I had to die to leave the cave?”

  “How could I know ye didn't?”

  “I don't know anything. I didn't know that sometimes rocks fall off other rocks and—.”

  “—Miss Knight, dying is how ye get the knowin’ of things in this world. And dying is how ye begin anew.”

  I couldn't accept that. “How do I avoid dying?”

  “By knowin’ ahead, thinkin’ ahead and bein’ quick on yer feet. But ye’ll still die. Nothin’ fer it.”

  My hands shook. Despite the pain and terror of death, I had to go back into that mine. Matt was in the Garden of 1000 Kindnesses but I couldn’t trust it to be kind to him at all.

  I went to number 7 this time and willed myself down but nothing happened. I stared at Merchant Meeks.

  “Don’t go lookin’ at me like I betrayed ye.” He pointed at the ground next to me. The number 6 was lit on each of the floor squares. “Ye’ve claimed that mine now, It’s yers. But ye be careful. It changes with every death.”

  I nodded.

  “And be sure ye pay up ‘fore ye leave.”

  Oh, right! I stepped back up to his table and handed him my Gluttonous Nickel.

  “40 more to go.”

  Someone tapped my shoulder and I screamed. I turned to see a creepy, potbellied fairy with bluish skin and polished obsidian eyes.

  “Wh-What are you? Where did you come from?”

  “I’ve been here the whole time, Miss Knight, you just haven’t seen me. I’m Tasker Phenic.”

  “A-Are there other things I haven’t seen?”

  He smiled showing rows of black needle-teeth. “Many.”

  As cold tingles ran down my spine I automatically scrutinized the room, searching for invisible monsters.

  “So,” I tried to say casually. “What do you do?”

  “I give you tasks. Your first is killing a Man Faced Spider and bringing me it’s carapace. Complete it and I’ll hand over a magic crystal that can save you from death. But be careful, the more of them you use before dying, the more you have to use.”

  What? A chance to avoid death?

  “Alright, I’ll do it.” I walked to one of the blocks marked with a 6 and glanced back.

  Phenic flew next to Meeks and they exchanged something gold.

  They were betting on me and against me. I wanted to stop them, to say something, but it was pointless.

  I willed myself into the mine and appeared at the top of a long tunnel.

  My mini-map showed that down 3 and to my left 1 was some kind of energy bubble and behind it were two boulders of nickel, there for the taking. I didn’t want to touch the energy just yet, in case it was some kind of explosive so I mined around it, quickly collecting the ore.

  Stolen story; please report.

  Up close, the energy appeared as glowing green ripples in a pond, if the pond’s surface was 3 dimensional and floated in mid-air.

  “The only way to learn is by doing.”

  I willed myself into its square. It popped, creating hundreds of small bubbles that rushed into my pickaxe. Its durability said 40/40, and a feeling similar to stepping into icy air conditioning on a hot summer’s day overwhelmed me.

  “Okay, so I need to save these until the last possible moment because I don’t know how often I’ll find them,” I said. “... And now I’m talking to myself.”

  I sighed and moved down a few blocks, then I noticed a spider on my minimap trapped in a 4 block vertical corridor with a boulder to the left and near the top. I really wanted anything that could prevent death.

  I moved down to the block above the boulder and waited.

  After a few heart-pounding moments the spider in my minimap crawled down to the bottom of the pit. Within a blink, I stepped into the block’s area, destroying it, and freeing the boulder for rolling. After moving over and down I rolled the boulder into the corridor. It tumbled down crushing the nasty insect.

  “Whoop!”

  A black shell with a very fleshed out human face grown on it flew into my cargo satchel.

  Then I noticed two more nickel boulders down 3 and left 5. they were surrounded by boulders and a very solid and uncarved block of stone. I figured, that if I was quick enough I could get in and out before the rocks collapsed. It would also make me square with Meeks.

  I would risk it.

  Clutching my pickaxe tight, I traveled to the precarious area.

  For a solid minute, I stared at the two boulders, working up the courage to risk getting crushed again.

  “I can do this!”

  I bolted into the two nickel boulders. They wobbled, but I immediately flew out. The stones collapsed. I flew back through several blocks to avoid the avalanche I’d created.

  A massive black spider with a human face on its back crawled into my space from below me. I sucked in a breath.

  It jumped forward and dug its fangs into my shoulder.

  My blood boiled. Screams echoed through my body. Darkness.

  As I once again faced the gray world of the reaper, my heartbeat slowed. I stared up at Mr. Black’s uncaring face.

  “Would you care to continue, Miss Knight?”

  I would get no sympathy here, but I didn’t want to go back into the mine.

  Still, I said, “Yes.”

  ***

  “Are we even now?” I asked.

  Merchant Meeks grinned. “Yes, miss. Be sure ye come back when ye have inventory worth 100 coins so I can exchange yer pickaxe fer a better one.”

  “I will.”

  I handed over the spider carapace to Phenic and a Death Saving Crystal appeared in my inventory. I needed to only use it when I had to, or when I couldn’t take it anymore.

  “Your next task is to find and destroy a Fae Mushroom Trap. They will make you briefly hallucinate before killing you.”

  “How do I destroy that?”

  “The same way you destroyed the spider.”

  A woman cleared her throat behind me. I jerked towards the noise and saw a thin dark elf in purple trousers and a flowy silk shirt that reached her mid-thigh.

  “Miss Knight. I’m Keymaster Korren. While you’re down there if you come across any boxes that happen to have keys in them would you kindly give those keys to me? I shall exchange your first two for a weapon. Then your next four for a better weapon.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “What do these weapons do?”

  “A variety of exceedingly advantageous things. The most prevalent is to send a projectile through blocks to eradicate traps and monsters.”

  “That sounds a little too good to be true.”

  She smirked. “Well, they do require you to charge them with kinetic energy.”

  “And, like, how do I go about doing that?”

  “Why, by shattering 20 carved blocks, of course.”

  I held out my hand. “Deal.”

  “A pleasure.”

  ***

  As soon as I entered the mine I noticed a box in my mini-map. I flew towards it shattering blocks as I went.

  I froze when I saw it with my eyes for the first time. A massive crate made from gunstock stained oak filled a whole block. Magic symbols crawled all over its surface in an ethereal color changing scrawl.

  I tried walking through it, as I did with everything, but it stayed in the same place. It didn’t even roll away like the boulders did. But. Maybe it would fall?

  I knocked out the block under it and watched it break. A giant spider crawled out and immediately jumped toward me.

  Time froze. A bell-like voice spoke in my mind.

  You are about to die. Want me to save you?

  The spider’s fangs were inches from my face, dripping poison. I swallowed, body shaking with fear.

  “I think choosing death like this is worse than suddenly dying.”

  Then you choose to continue?

  I didn't want to die, especially not by a spider. But if I used it here and died in a few more blocks I would pointlessly be out a crystal.

  Licking my parched lips, I said, “No.”

  Burning pain. Screaming. Darkness.

  And once again, I looked into the reaper’s world and the dark scythe-wielding thing within.

  I sneered at Mr. Black’s cold face and wondered if, behind those black eyes, he laughed at me.

  “Would you care to continue, Miss Knight?”

  “Yes.”