Some Dungeons were just straight ahead crawls. Go in the entrance, kill everything between you and the end. Nice and simple. Some had puzzles you had to solve. Those weren’t my favorite. Others were a maze to find your way through. Another type was the Wave Dungeon, where waves of increasing difficulty would come after you, barely a rest between.

  There was no shortage of interesting Dungeons. The Challenge System loved living up to its name.

  Any of the Dungeon types could have multiple Phases. You’d have to complete an Objective, maybe find an item or kill a certain monster, and the Dungeon would basically reset and you’d be starting over in the next Phase. Which of course would be far more difficult. Dungeons never made it easy.

  Which was part of the fun.

  I slowed down a bit as the wall of fog got closer. It was pretty solid looking, not letting me see a foot past the edge. Dense wall of gray cloud stuff. Maybe if I had some enhanced sense like Tracy, I could see into the fog, but nope, none of that for me.

  Stopping right in front, I reached out, kind of expecting to meet a wall of cloud, but my hand passed through, disappearing. I couldn’t see it and nothing grabbed it to pull me in, so seemed safe enough for now.

  But could be an entire army of Cliffside Trappers waiting on the other side.

  I stepped through the wall of fog, expecting to see nothing but white. Which would make trying to stay on the path really interesting. But I had some visibility. Could see maybe ten feet in front of me, barely, nothing to the side, above or behind. I could just see the edge of the path, part of the drop still visible. Wouldn’t want to hide the sheer drop. Just gotta keep reminding me that it’s there.

  Multiple sounds came out of the fog, none seeming to come closer. Screamers, Trappers skittering along the stone. The fog distorted the sounds, magnifying them, making it hard to figure out how many and where exactly they were.

  Nothing I could do about that, so just kept trudging along. Didn’t take long for the first Screamer to come out of the fog. It had been silent, or the noise of its approach was lost in the sounds around it. The thing was almost on me before I saw it. Mouth open, clawed feet reaching for me, wings ready to enfold me so the claws could scratch the hell out of me. I sent a Force lance at it, the tip striking it in the belly. The Screamer’s attack wasn’t the best. The only melee attack it could make with the way its body was designed, but it left the weaker underbelly exposed.

  No way would I go and complain to the Infinite Tower’s creators. Not that I knew who they were or where to find them.

  My lance pierced the hide, blood erupting from the wound. The Screamer twisted to get away, moving to the side, but its momentum carried it forward, bringing it close enough to where I could grab it. Holding onto the wing, I pulled the thing in toward me, spun and slammed it into the wall where I proceeded to pummel it.

  Another hide and sonic gland. I was really curious to see what could be done with those.

  Down another twenty feet, thirty? Ten? It was so hard to tell as the ground and cliff wall looked the same. Another design feature of the Dungeon. That was when a new creature rushed up the path at me.

  Short, came up to my chest, lanky, all arms and legs. Gray and bald. Kind of like Gollum. It sucked that I’d never get to introduce Jack to the Extended Editions or even the Hobbit.

  CLIFF STALKER

  The thing was silent. No noise. Not even it’s large bare feet slapping the rocky ground. The fingers ended in long claws, the tips black. Poison, rot or something like that. Nothing I wanted touching me.

  I shifted my feet, letting it come to me. An arm extended, leading with the claws. I twisted to the side, grabbing the arm and bending it as I spun the creature around. I heard the bones snapping, the creature still not making a single noise. As I spun, I bent, throwing the creature to the ground.

  The arms and legs started flailing around wildly, not the one I was holding though. The Stalker’s body bucked and thrashed. I had to twist to avoid the claws on the hands and the feet. It lifted its body up, slamming back down. I pulled the arm under mine, locking it in place, grabbing a leg and twisting. Another snap and part of the leg hung useless, flapping around as it thrashed. It flapped up and smacked me in the shoulder.

  I stomped on the thing's head, adding some Force, and crushing it. Gruesome way, but this Dungeon was all about the gruesome kills.

  No good loot either.

  At least I got some Tower Points and Multiverse Credits from the stupid thing.

  ***

  I was really not liking Phase Two of this stupid Dungeon. More Stalkers ran out of the fog, from both directions. The first from the back managed to claw me up pretty good before I could smash it. And just as I’d finished beating it with its own leg, a Screamer came at me. I beat the Screamer with the Stalker’s leg.

  That Stalker gave me a Stealth Essence, so that was good.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  Still didn’t know how far down I was, how close I was to the ground, but at least I was racking up the kills, getting some loot and a couple more Essences. This Dungeon was the best for Essence drops so far. Wasn’t sure if it was because I was doing a Duo Dungeon Solo, or just the Dungeon itself.

  Something else to ask Stylo.

  The only way I knew I was making real progress was by the timer. I was hoping this wasn’t some kind of puzzle Dungeon and I was stuck in a loop that I had to figure my way out of. I kept walking for another half hour, figuring at that point I’d stop and re-evaluate what I was doing, but luckily things changed.

  Instead of the constant downward slope I’d been dealing with since entering the fog, I saw a crevice up ahead. Not that wide, maybe ten feet, with a bridge across it. Stopping at the edge, I looked down and it went pretty deep. There were probably Stalkers and Trappers down there.

  Or something else. But I couldn’t see anything and the visibility was pretty good for a hundred feet or so.

  It was kind of weird that I hadn’t encountered a mini-boss type or elite yet.

  And I’d probably just jinxed myself.

  This bridge was the perfect location for an encounter like that.

  Looking up, the fog had receded a little but not enough to give a clear view of anything coming from above. I could see up the cliff maybe another twenty feet. To the side, the fog was still as far as it had been. So I figured if something was going to come at me when I crossed the bridge, it would be from above.

  I picked up a rock and tossed it onto the bridge. It clattered across a couple of boards and fell through a gap. It was a while before I heard it hit bottom. Nothing happened. I had kind of been expecting some kind of trigger to the event. Or maybe the Dungeon could tell the difference between a rock and an Adventurer?

  Was probably overthinking this.

  One last look up and down, not seeing anything, I stepped onto the bridge and waited. Nothing. Another step and still nothing. So I walked out to the middle and waited. Sure enough, I heard a scraping coming from above. The bridge swayed under me. Rope for handrails, rope holding boards for walking on, other lengths between the top and bottom to help hold it tight. My weight when walking made it bounce.

  Hands on the rope rails, I looked up and watched a big ol’ Stalker crawling head first down the cliff. It was three times the size of the ones I’d fought before. I wasn’t stupid enough to stay on the bridge, a couple quick hops getting me across to the other path. The big Stalker shifted his downward climb. He stopped about fifteen feet from me. I could tell he was going to jump.

  Pushing off from the cliff, leading with the claws on the huge hands, the thing leapt for me. I ducked and twisted, punching up, catching the Stalker in the neck. It made no noise, continuing its jump where it landed in a roll towards the edge of the path. I chased it.

  It came to a stop, digging claws into the hard ground to slow itself, a foot or so from the edge. Turning, it caught my kick right in the chin, snapping the head back. I followed up with a punch to the shoulder, another to the chest. The Stalker slid back and I kept punching. Its feet scratched at the ground, trying to stop its slide backwards. I kept up the attack, not letting it counter. And with one more good hit, with some added Force, the Stalker slipped. Too much weight was put on the foot barely on the path, the creature overbalancing. A push instead of a punch and it fell down.

  No noise as it fell and I lost it in the fog.

  “Dammit,” I cursed, realizing my mistake. “It’ll probably drop an Essence.”

  That was really dumb of me.

  I heard scratching on the ground, turning to see two Stalkers, normal sized, rushing at me. I hopped away from the edge and actually hopped closer to them so didn’t have the chasm so close. If I hadn’t finished off the big guy so quick, I’d have had to deal with him and these two. Instead just these two.

  A couple minutes later and I was walking down the path.

  ***

  Ten Stalkers, five Trappers and eight Screamers. A bunch of sonic glands, spider silk, poison glands and a couple Essences. And a couple hours. That’s what it took until I reached the bottom.

  The path leveled out, the fog lifting to reveal the bottom of the canyon. Rocks, rocks and more rocks. I could see the other side and about a hundred feet along the bottom in either direction. It was crowded with rock formations, breaking up the line of sight, haphazardly laid out.

  Most were the same kind of rock as the cliff, but a dozen or so had a shine to them, not as jagged as the others. I walked over to the nearest, realizing it was quartz, able to see the faceted sides. It didn’t glow or anything, but was just a giant formation of quartz. A glow to the side did catch my attention, making me smile when I saw what it was.

  I walked over, seeing the dead giant Stalker. He’d fallen between some of the formations and the wall, quite dead, a bloody and pulped mess. The glow was from an Essence Crystal. Touching the body, it disappeared and I got my loot.

  YOU HAVE GAINED +1 ADHESION ESSENCE

  Adhesion? That was a new one. And it could mean a couple different things. It was obviously what granted the Stalkers the Ability to climb up walls. That would be kind of cool to have. I didn’t want it, but it was giving me ideas of a new way to use my Motion and Manipulation Essences.

  I could already use them to increase or decrease the friction between my feet and a surface. That would either make it so I couldn’t be moved or that I could slide along the surface. But now I got to thinking that maybe I could use them to apply just enough friction to let me climb walls.

  How cool would that be?

  I’d already gotten a new use for my Force Essence and now a potential one for the other two. I’d only been in the Infinite Tower for a couple of days and making huge gains.

  The cliff in this Dungeon seemed like a good place to try it out, but not with some big boss monster roaming around down here. Testing would have to wait until I was back on Earth.

  It was time to find the boss.

  Now which direction? I didn’t have a coin to flip so just picked a direction at random and started walking.