Chapter Thirteen

  Random enters happened in dungeons, even safe ones like Old Bones beh Hazeldown. The flesh cube ohird floor had been one, a creature rarely seen and strohan expected. Harmony reasohat the shambler-host had to be one, even if it had left a trash drop. Even if she'd never heard of a random enter on the first floor. Would the team think she was talking herself up? Trying to look good for the boys?

  The Dig Boys would have stopped, packed up, ahe Old Bones if she'd spoken up here. Strange and new is dangerous. Running the first few levels of the dungeon and helping level escorts was a business. A way to survive w a dirty and dangerous job that puts food oable.

  Tyler's team, though… The neancer didn't know them. Would Tyler want to dive into the unknown? If this even ted? Max could promise to sy all her troubles to woo her away from her employer. Or would they leave and take with them her opportunity of a lifetime?

  "Harmony? Harmony?" Rose called

  "What?" The maid snapped. Looking around to see the boys' quicker pace having them well ahead of them. Made serategically to have the archer and neancer in the rear.

  "You were looking a little out of it. It's all an a pipedream based on moth-eaten scrolls and old rock tablets about rising to a higher level. I wouldn't worry about achievements or steltions. Nothis hard work aition."

  "Clearing the dungeon will be that easy? Even if we run inteness?"

  Rose ughed. "Old Bones is as reliable as a clock. The only strangeness we'll see might be a surprise monster one floor above where it should be. This will probably be my st run. Fifteen is calling. Then I be out of this little leveling creche for baby lords."

  A fsh of wizardly magi ahead showed the boys had already started to i with the foes of the sed floor.

  "Yeah, let's get you that level." Harmony accepted that getting what she wanted would be a dirty task. After all, she was the lowest level here and soloed that special shambler. These adventurers have all cleared the dungeon multiple times, while she'd never gone past the third level.

  The two picked up the pa time to watch Len explode a pile of unlivirails with a fireball.

  "Kit scraps," Harmony muttered.

  Not only were the dead bodies disposed of to feed the dungeon, but it was also used to drop every bit of biological waste in every kit, butchery shop, and bat ring iy.

  "e to join the fun?" Max asked.

  Three mooey piles slid into the fray. Twisted strangling iines and brains mixed together. Fish guts and scales with bits of sharpened spiig out, Chi feathers, half stig wrong-side out of a multi-beaked nightmare.

  Lord Tyler's maul swung into a, exploding the iines into a red spray.

  Three bolts from Rose's force bow plunged into the fishy one causing it to quiver still enough for Maxwell's sword to cut it into quarters.

  Harmony knew she could [High Kick] the chi into a paste, like Tyler had dohe goo-covered blunt on was not a state she wanted her leg in. She readied [Manipute Dead], grateful this wasn't her first time on the floor.

  “Bu-bu-krrk-ck.” A goorze choked out in a painful wail.

  The unliving, her quite alive nor dead. Animated with a force that Harmony knew was simir to her [Renew Spirit]. The monster's not-quite-dead status made it difficult for [Manipute Dead] to work, making it almost as useless as trying the skill on a fully living creature. Years of experience w on just the dead parts, be it smoothing skin, or w on nails and hair, gave her an advantage here. The sp-dash creatures had plenty to work with. The beaks, ks of bone shards floating ihe feathers. Those bits all sharpened and enrged, sending impaling spikes through the monster.

  It took the energy equivalent she'd used to halve a dozen shamblers to do it. After all that damage, it still wasn't dead.

  Hyath smashed his too the immobile object g in the side, savihe extra effort of atack. After that, the dungeon finally absorbed it, leaving a lowly iron in its pbsp;

  That was how the first two floors worked. Trash mobs leaving trash drops. Garbage guts sewn together, and corpses on their st legs fed to the low levels.

  Max started ughing. "Doesn't this make you all feel alive? How about we get to the challenging portion of our run. Lem, Little Lord. Time to show your new friend what we do."

  Len started ting, his hands crossing his chest and toug two symbols stitched into his robe.

  Harmony activated [Mana Rotation]. The rush waiting for her skill usage was there, but more importantly, she could feel what the Wizard was doing.

  Len's ma dehahers in the party. Tyler's pulsed out with a slow rhythm, Max's wove around his eyes, and Rose's pooled around her fiips. The density dipped as Len's mana bled into the sigils on his robe. The are symbols fshed when full, and two shimmering walls formed a V from him to the edge of the dungeon pathway.

  Tyler stood before the magical arts student while the rest was behind the makeshift barrier. Then the pair in front started running.

  Harmony's mana sense picked up the unliving creations before her sight did. The things tried to rush around to encircle the group and found themselves blocked by the barrier Le eling his mana into. They slid along that edge and right into Tyler's waiting maul.

  The heavy on swung bad forth like he was threshing wheat, exploding the goorze into a sptter of viscera and animal waste. Sometimes two or three at a time.

  "Woo!" Max yelled as the team jogged behind.

  Iron s ked and slid uhe shields as the dungeon absorbed most of the bits a its reward.

  The impressive level of coordinatio Harmony's earlier worries fall by the wayside.

  The spttering sounds ceased, and the team's jog ground to a halt. Len dropped his shield, and Lord Tyler stood there, covered head to toe in blood, bile, slime, and guts.

  "Need a moment before we find out who the fluardian is, little lord?"

  "I got this," Harmony said.

  [Manipute Dead] had no issue with the unliving bits after they'd been pulped. A little bit of synergy with [Dust] To extend the range a a grip on the fine particutes, then some more with [Beauti] to get close to the skin. The empowerment she'd been holding onto kicked in, and every bit ulled off of the tank and thrown to the far wall, leaving him er than he had been wheered the dungeon.

  "Thanks," Tyler mumbled.

  "Yeah. Saved us ten minutes of shaking and scraping." Rose piped in.

  "I still need five to recover my mana," Len said.

  "Tyler. You want to fill in our temp on how this will go?" Max asked.

  Lord Tyler nodded.

  "I take the brunt of the attacks. If I step back, Max is set to relieve me. This will be where you pay attention to what we do. Feel free to use your skills to support et some damage in at a distance, but try not to bloyone. We've cleared Old Bones with only four members several times, so don't worry yourself. Get some damage in when you , and hopefully, you'll get a level or two out of this. Usually, we like new members to at least have their stats unlocked, but hopefully, you'll gain those levels by the time we finish. If you want to leave the run early, that's okay too."

  The neancer realized why she hadn't been practig with the group. She wasn't part of it. Oh, Lord Tyler wanted her here. The slight smirk on Max's lips showed he'd be happy either way. She could fail, run away, or simply not make the cut, and he'd get to use it against his cousin, or she could make it, and the knight would try to woo her. She was underleveled, so it made sense.

  The vague sense of reje stung. The fact that Tyler waited until now to tell her. The skills and the armor were to make her appealing. She fed some power into [Poise and Bearing] to keep calm as she was torween cursing hing. Joining the team was he goal. Levels, pos, and the ce for the best pet around. A former royal pet, strong enough or soon made that way to win in the ission's arena a her out of scut work.

  "I uand." She mao speak calmly.

  Maxwell fshed his smile. "Good. I'm not expeg you to be useless. How you cleared the first floor was impressive. It would be dangerous to rely on you in a team role before we get your measure." With a pause, the knight turo the rest of the team. "You all know your roles. Let's see what's in store for us."

  The underground pathway e a wide room. At its ter, peared to be a craggy white boulder sat.

  Harmony's css could feel the death radiating off it a a sense of what exactly it was.

  "That's new." Rose blurted out.

  Like the first floor, the sed and evehird generally had a set rotating cast of fluardians.

  "That just means the guild will give us a bonus if we're the first to report this. Len and Little Lord would love to get their name's in the records. Poke it, Rose."

  The archer fired a trio of force bolts from her bow. Three shafts of light stuck out like pins in a pincushion, except the neancer could feel that wasn't right as they hadn't pierced it. The surface, the bo was made of, merely held them in pbsp;

  Then the mass of boarted to move, uncurling slowly, standing up to reveal the creature's form. Hundreds of skulls fused together to form the legs, body, arms, and head of a giant humanoid that stood twice as tall as Lord Tyler. Every skull's eyes faced the front and glowed with a faint e fme.

  Rose peeled off to the side and started to rapidly fire her bow. The light shots do nothing, in Harmony's opinion.

  She readied her own skill and released [Manipute Dead] from a distance. Outwardly nothing happened. She'd meant to blow off a k, shatter one of the skulls he skull giant's k most, she felt the skull weaken.

  "Challenge me with pawns?" It spoke a hollow voice of death ing from each opening, creating an eerie chorus.

  Tyler [Roared], a skill emp his maul as he charged in, smashing his on into its knee.

  Harmony ted herself lucky as he hit the one she'd been targeting, and the skull she'd weakened cracked in the middle. It was the only one.

  Len started raining fireballs at the fluardian. Patches of fmes licked the surfabsp;

  The giant swayed a little in respoo Tyler and Max's blows whenever he darted to the side for a ssh of his bde.

  Mere seds of bat and the neancer's skills and seold her it was all a show. No damage was being dohe giant lumbered about waiting… waiting for an answer.

  With her mana skill, she empowered [Manipute Dead]. Synergies, she fumbled with synergies as she felt about. Maybe [Dust] To ence the boo weaken. Then through the inspiration of how she'd deflect her team's blows [Small Armor], to use that predi to create targets of where her team would be hitting the beast. The skills rushed and swirled together, and she released her own attabsp;

  "Challenged." She answered back softly under her breath.

  Tyler's strike took a k of the shin. Len's fmes bcked and cracked a pair at the shoulder. Rose's shot, a more powerful strike since she could see the other ones did little, mao create a spider-web of fissures on its target, and even Max's bde left a long gouge. All parts she'd weakened.

  It was only through her sense of death that it felt like those dead faces actually smiled in response, even as her magic got to work, making them vulnerable.

  Challenge accepted. Now, whatever hesitancy the giant held was gohe tiny e embers in the eyes glowed brighter. Its body twisted to dodge or alter ining attacks, making Harmony's work useless. In a game of timing and precision, only one of the ining attacks mao hit where the neancer had weakehe beast. She could sehe deathly powers already undoing the damage to spots she'd hit. Each casting o t.

  The skull giants turn to attack. The colle of skulls that made up its boulder-of-a-fist swung heavily toward Tyler, who quickly activated his defensive skill. The force of the blow sent ripples through the air.

  Harmony worked overtime trying to predict where her team would strike and how the creature would dodge. Her only gratitude was that the creature didn't attack her, even as much as she felt its attention on her.

  [Manipute Dead] surged as she worked with the of [Small Armor], [Style and Grace], and even [High Kick] to coordinate her targets.

  It was a grind. The giant mao catch Tyler without his skill, knog him down. A kick shattered Len's shielding, sending him dang away. It used a damaged skull to fling Rose's way, catg her in the shoulder and causio tumble to the floor.

  The strain caused the maid to miss whole rounds of attacks by pig the wrong targets. The skull giant raised its hand for another massive blow to Tyler to get him to burn his defensive skill. Harmony could see crashing down and how that would ect.

  Inspiration took her. She cast again. This time using the giant's own strike against it, a line of bone made brittle right at the wrist. The impact shook the arena as a mighty blow hit the tank's near-invulnerable skill. The whole fist snapped ht where she wanted.

  As the rge bundle of skulls rolled across the floor, their glowing eyes dimmed until they went cold. Everyone could sehe tide turning. The team upped their attacks, feeling victorious.

  Harmony could only grunt at their iiveness, as she didn't have time to adjust to their new pace. It was the giant's new hesitatio attacked and how Harmony used ead every blow the guardian struck to force it to damage the guardian in the process that wore it down.

  She could feel the acceptance of death as the sed-fluardian slid to its knees. Every attack from the team focused on its now lowered head which Harmony obliged by making it weak. Maul, sword, force bolt, and fireball crashed into that primary skull nearly simultaneously, sending it shattered into a dozen pieces.

  [Sed Floor Cleared]

  Max bent doicked up the guardian's loot before turning to face the neancer.

  "You know, Harmony, I said to watch the teamwork, but it would have been nice if you'd done more than just stand there." He said a little acgly.

  "I was using my skill to weaken it."

  Harmony caught the eye roll as he turned away. Anger and the strong desire to kick him filled her up. None of them would believe her if she told them what the battle felt like through her senses.

  "Grroak," Hyath chastised her, tellio calm down.

  "Thanks. And don't think I didn't notice you lending me some energy during that. Extra cats for you ter."

  Harmony moved to where the team was talking.

  "I've faced third-fluardians who weren't as tough," Tyler said excitedly.

  "No real projectile attacks, no fog on the weakest members, and it fell apart in the end. It was more of a test of enduraype challenge." Rose added.

  "It mentioning a challenge had to be a clue," Len added.

  They were wrong. The maid chewed on her lip to keep from telling them h they were. There had to be something… "My css felt it was tougher than it should be. My spells could only cause some internal damage. I feel this run will be unusually tough the deeper we go."

  "That meaer loot!" Maxwell announced. He reached out, dispying what dropped.

  Five items for five members. Harmony Analyzed them. A bone wand titled Wizard Fingers, she wouldn't be shocked if it was fingers of wizards fused together. It added a death synergy to a single skill eled through it. A potion of speed. Bone balm for healing broken bones. A sig ring that slightly boosted authority and a small bundle of ghost ce. The silky, nearly invisible fabric rized by some clothing designers and, for the neancer, a key po for her scroll.

  Rose he speed potion. Lord Tyler slid the ring onto his pinky. Len ied the wand, probably w what death synergized fireballs looked like before he pocketed it. Max held the st two times in his hand, weighing them. Bones were notoriously difficult to heal with most skills, so the bone balm was more valuable teically, not that you could easily trade fhost bsp;

  Harmony pouted at the idea that she might not get what she needed. She feared her ck of visibly helping in the fight would be held against her. She could ask, but Maxwell had shown aidency to do whatever impulsively came into his head.

  "Imagine how you'd look in a dress made of this." He handed her the bsp;

  The genuine smile that broke out on the neancer's fad nothing to do with the ent. Mine was all she could think about.

  "e o's head down to the third floor." Tyler insisted, interrupting the moment with an edge of surlio his voice.

  Author Note: I have books on Amazon. I know you'll probably just stick to scribblehub, but they're cheap and in KU.

  Crafting of Chess, about a teenage chess hustler pying a vrmmo.

  Intelligence Block, about a Teo-wizard who does birthday parties, but suddenly his career path ges.

  The Card Job, In a VR space ame our protagonist wants to plete his mini-game card colle. For help he tacts an ex.

  Progression of Power - a short story about a dungeon diver cursed by her brother.