The tunnel ended in a circular room; in the center sat a lone chest, and another tunnel continued onward. Glancing at my mana bar, I dismissed my familiar. I couldn’t afford for it to bottom out.

  “What did you do that for?” Ben asked. Clearly nervous about the wolves.

  “My mana was about to run out.” I said as I glanced around the room. The treasure chest was something I was quite interested in, but now wasn’t the time. It could also be trapped, not to mention I wasn’t sure how I would even open the chest. It was several times bigger than me. I would just have to wait for my familiar.

  Not finding any cracks or holes in the walls to hide in, I turned to the tunnel leading deeper into the dungeon.

  “Could you put some light down the tunnel?”

  Ben did so, saying nothing. The overly enthusiastic bunny wasn’t up for adventuring like he thought it seemed. He kept turning back towards the dungeon entrance.

  Moving closer to the tunnel, it turned out it wasn’t a tunnel at all but an archway that led onto a narrow path.

  “Ben, I need more lighting. This is not a tunnel, but something else.”

  More howls echoed out, though it was hard to tell if there were getting closer.

  “I think they might be coming.” Ben said.

  I turned to Ben, eyes wide. “Do you see them?”

  “No, it’s just the howls aren’t moving away.”

  “Well, get over here. We need more lighting so we can move further away from them and find a place to hide.”

  Ben shot more lights out. Some stuck to the walls in the distance, but the ones he shot down just fizzled out.

  “There is no way. Ive never had my lights fizzle out unless I shot them at the sky.”

  I nearly asked why he was shooting lights at the sky, but the howls kept me focused. “try to stick them to the sides and on the path in the distance. I want to see where the path leads.”

  Ben did so and the room slowly started coming in to view. The narrow path led across the room that seemingly had no bottom. I wasn’t sure what the range on the light spell was. However, that didn’t matter. It was far enough to die on impact or maybe just fall for an eternity.

  Next to one light that was stuck on the wall was a skeleton with a bow. There was absolutely no way to get to it, less you could have reached it from the other path in the first room.

  The room was an absolute nightmare, though with my small body the narrow path wouldn’t be much of an issue and I could just run across. As for the skeletal archer, all I could do was hope it wasn’t that good of a shot.

  “Ben, can you place more lights on the walls, some on this other side to, I wanna see if there are any more archers.”

  Ben did so while also looking back at the entrance. The howls sounded as they were getting louder. “Thats all I can do. I don’t want my mana to run low.”

  “It’s fine. I can at least see.” It was a bit gloomy and dark in some areas, but I could make out three more archers. Two on each side. We were likely meant to find hidden paths and take out the archers before going through this room. I moved on to the path a few feet to get a better look.

  The howls sounded as they were right outside the dungeon entrance.

  Suddenly, one of the lights began moving towards us. We both looked at each other in confusion. “Can you see what that it is?” I asked, knowing the rabbit’s eyes were much better than mine.

  Ben backed up slightly. “It’s a skeleton. Level eight warrior, it has a large stick with something sharp on the end.”

  The howls grew louder.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “What do we do?” Ben asked, sounding more panicked than I have ever heard him before. “The Mother Tree put you in charge, so you must have a plan!”

  That was terrible logic. I was as unsure why we were sent to a dungeon so close to the wolves. I guess the Mother Tree didn’t know the wolves had something against me. “Hold on, I’m thinking.”

  I didn’t think the wolves would want to go across the narrow path. It was only about eight inches wide. Plenty for Ben and I, but not so much for wolves. At least I hoped. The problem was the skeleton that was currently coming towards us. Not to mention the archers and whatever was waiting for us on the other side. Now that I thought about it, I was impressed the skeleton could even balance on the path, much less walk on it. Quickly pushing those thoughts down, I considered my next move.

  My mana was low, and I didn’t want to summon Jason. I would feel bad pulling him right out in front of a charging skeleton. But Jason could be re-summoned. Ben and I couldn’t. Though he would likely just fall to his death immediately.

  “Arthur! They’re coming!” It took me a second to realize what Ben said.

  Glancing towards the entrance, I saw a wolf sniffing the ground. It then looked up and stared right at us before howling.

  The skeleton, with Ben’s light stuck to its rib and wielding a halbert of all things, was nearly in the room.

  “What do we do!” Ben asked, eyes wide and darting all over the place.

  “Okay, soon as the skeleton enters the room, we dart around it and run across the path. We will need to move quickly or the archers will hit us. We also need to—”

  Before I could finish speaking, Ben darted under the skeleton’s legs and down the path. The skeleton paused, as if deciding which one of us it would deal with first. During this momentary pause, I glanced towards the entrance. My eyes widened and breath caught in my throat.

  The wolf I gained my title from was standing at the other end of the tunnel. I had thought that wolf would no longer be part of the pack since he lost his status as the alpha.

  The skeleton entering the room took me out of my shock. One last glance at the wolf, I saw him charging down the tunnel. I then darted under the skeletal warrior and onto the path. Arrows flew as I ran, but I didn’t stop till I reached the end. Looking around, I saw Ben huddled up in the corner, shivering.

  “Hey, buddy, it’s going to be okay. We made it across.”

  A yelp of pain from one of the wolves, then the sound of fighting.

  “See, this place is just as dangerous for them as it is for us.” This seemed to do little for the shivering rabbit. I nearly told the rabbit to snap out of it. A wolf stepped out onto the narrow path, then yelped as an arrow slammed into it and it fell in to the beyond below. After a few seconds, I received a prompt.

  Dark Wolf level 7, defeated.

  379 essence obtained.

  My eyes widened in surprise. I had not expected to gain any essence from that. It had been worth a good bit, too. This even had Ben move from the corner and look out. Then the howls began. I expected Ben to cower, but he seemed to get bolstered by their cries.

  “How do you like that, you mangy mutts? Aren’t so tough now, are ya?”

  I looked on in disbelief before I pulled Ben away from the path. “I don’t think we should taunt them.”

  Ben was about to respond when a ruckus of howls echoed out. No doubt waking everything in this dungeon. Then another wolf hesitantly stepped out onto the path.

  This one was larger than the other one, though still not nearly as big as the former alpha. An arrow slammed into its side. It yelped and stumbled but didn’t fall. I glanced at my mana. It was nearly up to a quarter, the effect of the mushroom still putting in work. “We need to keep moving.”

  Another arrow slammed into the wolf’s shoulder and it nearly fell in. The other wolves were watching intently and barking out what I could only assume were encouragements. However, the wolf hadn’t even made it a fraction of the way and was limping hard.

  One more arrow and that would be it. The wolf also seemed to know this and started trying to walk backwards when another arrow slammed into it and it fell off the side.

  “Ha! You over grown rats will never make it.”

  That was an odd insult, but the wolves seemed to be riled up into a frenzy because of it. “Ben, stop taunting them and let’s go.”

  Dark Wolf level 9, defeated.

  496 essence obtained.

  Another sizeable chunk of essence. If this continued, I would make it to level ten in no time. Though I doubted the wolves would just keep killing themselves.

  “It’s fine,” Ben said. All previous fear washed away. “They can’t make it across and we are gaining essence.”

  I had forgotten that Ben could also gain essence. “How much did you gain from that last one?”

  “Well, that’s a bit personal, but. I guess I’ll share. I gained one hundred and fifty-two.” Ben said proudly. “What about you?” Ben asked.

  I froze at this. I was gaining a lot more than that for some reason. “Two hundred.” I decided to say.

  “Oh wow, you gained more than me.” Ben said, looking at me with wide eyes.

  It was good I didn’t tell him how much I actually gained. Another wolf began on the path, this one smaller than the last. When the arrow was about to slam into it, the wolf jerked its head around and bit the arrow in half. The wolves went berserk at this, howling and yelping like crazy. Ben stepped back. “You’re right, we should get going.”

  We then began down the tunnel, cautiously worry of traps and more skeletons. I didn’t think that wolf could make it, but I was sure they would eventually get across. Once that wolf made it to the center, it would be in the range of all four archers.

  The tunnel took a sharp left and led to stairs going up. At the top of those stairs, there was a skeleton that held an enormous axe.

  “Great.” I said, rolling my eyes.