Under normal circumstances, I’d be worried about leaving Cari behind.

  “She’s so amazing! I dyed my hair to match hers, you know?”

  Right now, though…

  “Did you know she killed a Tunnel Wyrm solo?”

  I’m going to kill her.

  “Oh my gods, you got to see her up close right? How accurate is my paint? Is it too lavender or too plum? It has to be perfect for when I meet her.”

  “It looks fine,” I puff.

  “Aw, come on. I need specifics! Wait—is it sparkly enough? Should I add more glitter? Maybe go for a more Moonwine look?”

  No, killing her won’t be enough. I’m going to tickle her until she passes out, then tie her up and do it again when she wakes up. Then I’m going to—

  “Incoming, fourteen of them,” Folly says, his voice quiet but sharp, his magic cutting clean through the chatter.

  There are eight of us in total. Two three-person Tier One parties, plus Folly and me. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t have a say in the group composition.

  But Cari sure did.

  Right when the groups were just about decided, she just had to interject and suggest Kiki’s party. Apparently they have Skills that push hostile mana into their opponents, similar to my Arcane Strike.

  And I’d made the grave mistake of telling Cari about how well my skill worked on the statues, which she then told to the rest of the party leaders and Folly. Now here I am, saddled with an Agora-mimicking super-fan.

  All thanks to Cari.

  Just you wait, you little demon. I’ll be sure to show you exactly how thankful I am.

  But… I had to admit the team was pretty good. Kiki’s party is composed of a Ranger, a Mage, and Kiki herself, a Fighter. Kiki apparently convinced her poor companions to name the party “Purple Dream,” which was just…

  Ugh. I don’t even want to think about it anymore.

  The other party, apparently called Greymark, is blessedly normal. Orin, the party Mage, is the leader. His party is unique though, in that they don’t have a Fighter. Instead, there’s a Ranger with two short-swords at his hips, and another Ranger with a bow.

  According to Folly, they’re each level 58, making them the highest leveled party in the expedition.

  Then there is Folly himself, whose wind magic somehow boosts our speed while also keeping us entirely silent. Honestly, his magic is weird. Sometimes the statues would just fall apart, like a blade sliced them into hundreds of pieces. Other times they would shake so violently that they crumbled or turned to mush.

  With my Race and Milestones I can literally see the mana in action, but I still don’t understand how he’s doing it all. When I asked how he was speeding us up when we left the camp, he just grinned and said “You’ll figure it out eventually.”

  Ever since then I’d been giving him my most jealous glare. And we’d been running for hours.

  A low rumble finally echoes through the tunnel, the tell-tale sounds of stone on stone, fast and closing in.

  Then the statues round the tunnels in front of us, charging our group at full speed. We’re still faster. Much faster, actually, thanks to Folly’s bullshit magic.

  Kiki and I dash into their midst, her with two swords that look suspiciously similar to Agora’s twin blades, and me with… well, me. Four of the statues fall apart or explode before we even reach them, courtesy of the Mages and Rangers behind us.

  Then we’re on them, cutting and punching our way through. With how fast I’m moving, I actually start to notice my mana dip. Normally I’d be able to use Arcane Strike and Bloodmist Fist as much as I like without worrying about mana at all, but now?

  I’m hitting so fast that I’m out-pacing my absurd mana regen.

  While I still have some reservations in regards to the smaller statues like these, it’s hard to take them seriously when they can’t keep up anymore. Alone, I can deal with a few of them. But with this boost from Folly, I’d run out of mana before I took a single blow.

  A twinge of concern bubbles up when I think about the giant statues, and it brings with it a question.

  Why haven’t we seen any?

  I’m almost surprised when the fight ends because it takes less than a minute to take them all out. Kiki’s party seems the most effective, right alongside me, with our Skills sometimes causing the statues to fall dead with only a couple of hits.

  That said, Folly is still terrifyingly efficient. I saw him mouthing a few words before one of the statues just fell apart. If he wanted to, I’m sure he could outperform us all given how easy he makes it look.

  The Greymark party stays behind, occasionally taking cheap shots but otherwise acting as defenders of the ranged members of our group. It’s a pretty clean operation, really. My only complaint would be the company, but I’m not so bitter that I can’t suck it up.

  Once the last statue falls, we’re moving again, sprinting through the Tunnels. Kiki and I lead, with the dual wielding Ranger covering the back. When Kiki starts gushing about Agora once more, I let my world turn into a blur of following signs etched into stone and combat.

  After that, it becomes routine. Kiki fan-girls. Statues charge. We crush them. Rinse and repeat. Sometimes with more spells or arrows, sometimes with more blades and fists. But we don’t stop unless we absolutely have to, and that only happened the one time when Kiki got a nasty cut on her leg.

  By the time we reach the stairway to the fifth layer, not even four hours have passed. I’m not the only one who’s surprised, either.

  “Wait, hasn’t it only been a few hours?” Orin asks, pulling up just shy of the stairs.

  “Yes, yes, having a high leveled wind Mage along to bend the air in your favor is great. But my mana is burning. Keep moving,” Folly says, practically shooing us down the stairs.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  Just like our trip from the third layer to the fourth, we’re harassed by statues attempting to ascend. By the time we reach the bottom we’ve killed half again what we fought throughout the entire fourth floor.

  Even so, the fifth layer goes the way of the fourth. Hours pass, statues are destroyed, and we move. At the same time, I can’t push away this growing sense of foreboding.

  And then I see it. The entrance to the Dungeon.

  Dungeon Discovered!

  Temple of the Fallen

  Difficulty: Extreme

  Participants: Unlimited

  Restrictions: Level 45+ (Overridden.)

  Enter the dungeon?

  Y/N

  It’s a door almost identical to the ones I’d seen in my acclimation period. Deep black metal that seems to consume the light around it, no markings or anything. It’s like the door itself is a hole in reality.

  Which makes sense, I suppose. It basically is. Weirdly, it has the same name as my acclimation dungeon. Actually, why was my acclimation dungeon called ‘Temple of the Fallen’ anyways? There wasn’t even a temple.

  But one thing still bothers me.

  “This is too easy,” I mutter, interrupting Kiki’s rambling about how Agora must have had a secret boyfriend.

  “Huh?” she asks.

  “I said this is too easy,” I say, louder this time so the rest of the party can hear.

  It took us another six hours or so to get here, and while that can be explained by Folly’s magic, the opposition wasn’t as fierce as I remember it being. The Tunnels are large enough to accommodate at least some of the bigger statues, and the space around the dungeon entrance alone is big enough to fit at least two of the giants with room to spare.

  “What do you mean?” Folly asks.

  “The giant ones haven’t come out at all, and I remember most of the little ones being armed. All we’ve gotten are mostly unarmed, small ones. I don’t get it,” I say.

  Folly nods with a serious look. “I was thinking the same thing. Orin, set up some wards. We’ll take two hours to rest and recover, then we’re going in. As for the big ones… I’m not sure. Maybe they can’t?”

  With a sigh I plop down where I am, more than happy to get off my feet. Admittedly, I’m not actually that tired. But we did just run for nearly ten hours straight, and even System enhancements can’t bypass fatigue entirely.

  After a quick look around, I find several others following my lead. Folly, Orin, and Kiki’s party’s Mage are the only ones who look to be in somewhat rougher shape. Each of them is breathing heavily and resting in one way or another, but they aren’t outright spent.

  “Okay, those should buy us a few seconds at least,” Orin says as he jogs up.

  That’s when I feel Folly finally release his magics with a sigh of relief. Then he plops onto the ground just like the others.

  It doesn’t take long before more statues burst out of the dungeon entrance, just appearing in front of the door as if teleported. Thankfully, Kiki’s party and the Rangers on Orin’s team were ready for it, and they were handled quickly enough even without Folly’s buffs.

  Instead of going entirely uninjured though, Kiki and the dual-wielding ranger both end up with several scratches this time. A brief flare of Arcane Regulation had them all patched up, but it still wasn’t a good sign. If the small, weak ones are able to draw blood…

  I shake off the negative thoughts. This was expected. It’s one of the reasons I was brought along—I’m not just a fighter, I’m a healer. We never planned for things to go as smooth as they have so far, we planned for things to go to shit.

  For a while, I just sit and think on everything I’ve gone through, and everything I still need to do. I’m stronger than I have any right to be, and with each passing day I only grow stronger.

  I’m not as strong as I want to be. No, as I need to be. But someday I would be. I’d take another step towards that goal by not letting this go the way of the first expedition.

  I feel something in me shift ever so slightly, like a barrier I wasn’t aware of starting to crumble away. Before I can come to understand the feeling, however, my impromptu meditation is interrupted by Folly.

  “Time to move. Everyone ready?” he asks.

  Wait, two hours have passed already? What the…

  I quickly hold up my hand sheepishly. “Sorry—just need a moment to check my notices. Lost track of time.”

  He doesn’t even try to hide the frown, but he nods anyways.

  You have leveled up! X8

  Stats gained:

  +16 Strength

  +16 Constitution

  +40 Dexterity

  +32 Intelligence

  +32 Wisdom

  +16 Charisma

  +80 free stat points

  Poison Resistance has leveled up!

  Level 11 -> Level 15

  Congratulations!

  Through experience, you naturally gain the following Skills:

  Meditation

  Meditation

  General, Passive, Mind, Body

  A calm mind nourishes a resilient body.

  You are able to enter a meditative state, allowing you to recover mental and physical fatigue faster while subtly enhancing natural regeneration.

  Oh. No wonder the time flew by.

  Well, at least it’ll be useful eventually. The past few days hadn’t exactly given me any opportunities to meditate. Plus, I wasn’t sure I’d choose to contemplate my life choices over, say, getting a massage.

  One is certainly better than the other.

  Status:

  Name - Emilia

  Race - Faefox

  Age - 20

  Level - 49

  Health - 7,740/7,740

  Health Regen - 2,084 per minute

  Mana - 39,936/39,936

  Stored - 79,872/79,872

  Mana Regen - 35,904 per minute

  Strength - 182

  Constitution - 193

  Dexterity - 710

  Intelligence - 552

  Wisdom - 998

  Charisma - 182

  Available Stat Points - 140

  I can almost evolve!

  “All done?” Folly asks with a hint of impatience.

  I don’t bother trying to speak through my grin, so I just give him a nod. I brush myself off on the way to the rest of the group. Several of them are giving me knowing smirks, and I can’t hold back the pride-filled tail wiggles.

  Was I disappointed that literal hundreds of Tier One monsters didn’t get me there? Sure, maybe a little. But we’re bound to fight countless more. There’s no way I don’t evolve after this dungeon.

  With more pep in my step than I’d ever admit to, I join the others and place my hand on the Dungeon entrance.

  Folly glares at me for a moment before smirking. “Congratulations. Now, on one. Three… two… one!”

  I select ‘yes’.

  Quest Alert

  Clear the dungeon.

  Objectives:

  Destroy the dungeon core.

  Rewards:

  Level up x5

  A familiar darkness surrounds us, ominous and consuming. This time, my ears don’t pop thanks to Constitution. And this time, I can see much farther into its depths than before.

  Through the gloom, I see pillars perfectly spaced all throughout the area, stretching into the darkness to an unseen ceiling. Statues stand stationary in all their treacherous beauty, covered in the same incredibly precise rune-works that I see on the floor.

  But the biggest change comes in the form of my Dungeoneer skills. Sense Danger flares to life the moment we enter the space, the scent of death almost physical in the air to my senses. When I look at the floor, I find the runes starting to slowly glow to life, as they had the first time.

  “The statues will wake up soon,” Folly says, before turning to me. “Any idea where this dungeon core might be? There’s nothing like that mentioned in the reports.”

  The only thing I can think of would be the red arcanite that started all of this, but I’m not entirely sure I hadn’t just imagined it. Still, I think back to the expedition, trying to trace my steps from the entrance.

  With the entire space being uniform, excluding the statues, it’s difficult. But I can at least point to a general direction that I think I was tossed to.

  “That direction somewhere, I think. I remember seeing something that might be the core, but I’m not certain,” I say, pointing ahead and to the right-ish.

  “It’s something. Let’s move everyone, standard formation,” he commands, and we all start running the direction I’d pointed.

  His wind is at our backs once more, speeding us along at frankly stupid speeds. Kiki, who hadn’t shut up once since our group was made, is dead silent, looking around the space with uncharacteristic seriousness.

  To be fair, everyone is. It’s still weird seeing her quiet.

  “We’ll be looking for a piece of red arcanite about the size of my palm embedded into the floor,” I say.

  Everyone gives me a curious look, but I just shrug. “It’s what I saw.”

  A huge pillar of stone slams into the ground before us, forcing us to go around it. When I follow the direction it came from, I find one of the giant statues glaring at us through the gloom.

  But I expected that.

  What I didn’t expect was that the damned thing would have a bow.