Colt, who had been trying to lift the skeletons off Luke, stood right next to him, hacking at the enemies with his sword. It didn't do much of anything against them, steel scraping against bone. Several of them swarmed him, throwing themselves at his arms to keep him from attacking. He let out a dissatisfied grunt, and his shield and sword disappeared. Rather than using the ineffective weapon, Colt grabbed a skeleton by the neck, ignoring its teeth. He pulled and twisted until a loud snap sounded as he tore the skull from its neck with a roar.

  Mateo experienced similar problems with his spear and was unable to get clean enough thrusts to penetrate the skull. Instead, they glanced off to the sides. Once Hannah got to them with her shadows, though, the tide of battle turned. The ones she didn't outright crumple together like pieces of paper, Mateo felled with quick thrusts, the tip of his spear digging into their skulls.

  Ray and Luke assisted Colt in getting free of the remaining skeletons, putting them down one by one with surgical precision, Ray with his twisted dagger and Luke with Needle of Life.

  With the last skeleton falling to pieces, the group had won the battle, but it came at a cost. Bite marks covered Colt's arms, and his right cheek was torn open, just a flap of blood-covered skin hanging. He touched it and recoiled, eyes going wide with shock.

  "Hold on," Luke said, kicking at a bunch of bones to make room for him next to the wounded Colt.

  Rather than touch the mess that was Colt's face, Luke held up his hand and allowed mana to stream out of his palm in the shape of a thread, then he added a second thread. With the first one, he moved the skin flap into place to stitch it back into place with the second. Using two threads proved exponentially more difficult than just using the one, but Luke managed it by going slow and taking his time.

  Colt gasped and shuddered, his hands closing into tight fists and his breathing coming in quick bursts. The pain was getting to him, but he shouldered it like a champion.

  As he worked, Colt's mana kept pulling on Luke's attention. He'd seen it flow within Integrated before, of course, but always like a muted stream going along the same paths as the blood pumped, unaffected by his healing. Now, though, it almost glowed, as if the mana was begging for his attention. Curious, Luke reached for it as he stitched the many bites closed.

  Luke's mana reached for Colt's, and Luke's mouth fell open when the two connected.

  "I can use it," Luke said, drawing upon Colt's mana, using that to close the wounds rather than his own.

  "What are you doing?" Colt asked, his voice frayed with panic.

  The words didn't register in Luke's hearing, he was too busy exploring the metaphysical realm within his patient. Colt's mana thrummed within him, eager to be used, and Luke didn't let it down. In a matter of moments, he'd fed Colt's mana into his own wounds, closing some by pure healing, others by stitching them closed. Soon, Colt's streams of mana thinned, growing dimmer and more difficult to work with. Not giving up, Luke pushed, willing his own mana, forcing his control over the patient.

  A shove. Luke fell back, blinking, pulled out of his focused daze.

  "What the hell are you doing?" Colt asked, getting to his feet.

  Luke stood as well. "What?"

  "My mana! I've only got 10% left!" Colt shouted.

  Penny walked up to Colt, moving slowly, still exhausted. "What did you do to him?"

  "I healed him," Luke said.

  Colt shook his head. "That's not it!"

  "Well, I kind of," Luke said, scratching the back of his head, "kind of used your mana to do it."

  "That's awesome," Ray said, nodding in approval.

  They all stood in silence for a little while, then Colt sighed. "Thank you for healing me, but ask next time before you use my mana to do it. I'm all out of potions, so now I can't use any skills."

  Luke regarded him for a moment, then nodded. "That's fair."

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  Penny’s wound was easy enough to heal, and he did so without using her mana, though he had to admit it was tempting. As soon as he examined her wound, he got a sense for her mana levels, just by looking at the precious resource streaming through her. It was a dull blue, moving at a slow, languid pace.

  Once the healing was done and dealt with, the group stood over the more than twenty dead skeletons.

  Penny was the first to speak. "Hey, I gained two levels!"

  "One for me," Hannah said.

  "Why didn’t you burn them from the inside, like the zombies?" Luke asked Hannah.

  "That takes too much mana," Hannah explained. "The shadows are like a passive skill. I can control them with my mind." She winked at him and tapped her temple.

  "I’ve got something similar," Luke said, testing his leg, putting weight on it to make sure his healing held, then walked over to stand above the corpse of the undead mage, checking its inventory. "Empty."

  "Did it have any loot?" he asked the others.

  Ray held up his hand, a ring between his thumb and forefinger. "A ring of simple design," he said, displaying a brass band. "+2 to Vitality. Almost useless."

  "My vitality is at 3," Penny said. "I could use that."

  She held out her hand, and Ray looked around at the others inside before dropping it into her palm. "Sure thing, princess."

  She placed the ring on her left ring finger, then gave Colt a meaningful look and smiled.

  "Anything else?" Luke asked.

  "Not that I saw," Ray said.

  "My friends, I retrieved an item from that scoundrel," Mateo said, holding up a key. An ornamental iron key.

  Luke looked into the chamber where the undead mage had waited for them. It looked like it could have been a sitting room with a few plush chairs and side tables. Glassware covered in dust, and a glass bottle of something that looked a lot like whiskey.

  "There's a locked door in here," Luke said. "The key is probably for that."

  He walked inside, picked up the bottle, and found that he could place it into his inventory.

  "Did you just steal that mage's booze?" Ray asked.

  Luke grinned. "I think I did."

  He grabbed the table, lifted it, and put that into his inventory as well. The chair proved a little heavier, but he got it up over his head and placed it into his inventory.

  "What are you doing?" Hannah asked.

  "Well, now I have a chair with me that I can place anywhere. Convenient, if you ask me."

  "Hey, I want one," Colt said, grabbing a chair for himself as Mateo walked up to a wide door, key in hand.

  Luke scanned the bookcases, but found nothing he could read. It was all in that strange script, but he grabbed some of them, anyway. The lock on the door clicked as Mateo inserted the key and turned it.

  Before heading over there, Luke returned to the undead mage and put its corpse into his inventory before attempting to sell it. Unfortunately, the shop didn't work inside the dungeon. The inventory worked on a grid-like system, with each item taking up a slot. Health potions and mana potions didn't take a slot each. Instead, a small number appeared above them, telling him just how many he carried. The corpses didn't stack, and Luke found his inventory almost full, with just a few slots remaining. A quick check told Luke his phone didn't work down in the dungeon, either.

  "I told you!" Ray shouted.

  Luke looked up. Beyond the now-open door was a spiral staircase leading down.

  "I told you," Ray said. "I freaking told you so."

  "Congratulations on being right once," Luke grumbled, sniffing the air. "Now I'm smelling it too."

  Mateo pointed his spear down the stairs. "We must go on for glory!"

  Luke raised an eyebrow. "Hey Mateo."

  "Yes?" he asked.

  "What did you do before this?"

  "My occupation, a landscaper," he said, drawing in a quick breath, once again touching his hand to his chest, "but in here, a poet."

  "A poet?" Luke asked.

  Mateo raised his free hand in front of him and spoke, his voice booming with passion.

  Héroes del campo y del sol,

  con machete y con sudor,

  enfrentaron la sombra cruel

  que marchitaba el color.

  No usaron capa ni espada,

  solo tierra entre las manos,

  y el valor de quien no teme

  sembrar futuro temprano.

  El mal cayó como hoja seca,

  y volvió a brotar la esperanza.

  Penny sniffled and dried a tear on the sleeve of her robe.

  "You understood that?" Colt asked.

  "Some," she said with a sniffle. "I take Spanish, but it just sounded so beautiful."

  "Thank you, friend Penny," Mateo said. "Now, onward, my friends!" He turned and raced down the stairs.

  "He's a weird one," Colt said as he lumbered up to the door. "We'd better follow."

  Penny went after, then Luke, followed by Ray and Hannah.

  "Do you think that dude read Don Quixote as a kid?" Hannah asked. "Maybe he took the wrong lessons from it."

  "Haven't read that one," Luke said.

  "Uncultured swine," Hannah joked as they walked the steps down in a circle, ending up in another room.

  A sweet stench wafted up against them, more powerful now, impossible to ignore, and Luke felt the immediate need to go back up and forget this place ever existed.

  Mateo's face was pale, and Luke could understand why. Parts of people, hacked to pieces, spread out everywhere, hanging from chains on the walls, lying in great piles. Arms, legs, and torsos, covered in blood and gore. Buzzing flies were everywhere.

  Ray, holding up his arm to shield his nose and mouth, spoke, his voice muffled. "Told you so. Again."

  "What?" Luke asked, swallowing hard, the stench enough to make his eyes water.

  "The smell," Ray said. "That sweet smell. Decomposing bodies."

  "So many dead," Colt whispered.

  Penny turned and grabbed Ray's shoulders, shaking him, her voice high and disbelieving. "You said this wasn't real, right? It isn't actual... dead... people everywhere. Is it? Tell me it isn't!"