I hit the ground hard when they tossed me in. I landed flat on my back. Pain flared through my shoulders as I pushed myself up to my knees. The dungeon was pitch?black except for the faint circle of light spilling down from the trapdoor several meters above. I’d only fallen about twelve feet, but I might as well have been thrown out of Nakatomi Plaza.

  I imagine as soon as the guards were off the hill, Mel teleported all quick and determined like. Mel couldn’t teleport into the dungeon, but he could teleport right beside the opening and drop down.

  I looked up just in time to see a small, fish?axolotl missile plummeting toward me.

  I reached up and caught him.

  [Hey!] Mel chirped.

  “It’s so good to see you,” I said, hugging him tight. “Where’s Rovek?”

  [I believe he is waiting for the guards to leave. He said it is probably best if they think you’re dead.]

  “If he doesn’t hurry, I might actually be dead. I need this suppression collar off or a weapon or both.”

  A low moan drifted out of the darkness.

  I froze.

  Something moved about fifteen feet away, just outside the light. When it finally stepped into view, I wished it hadn’t.

  It looked like a draugr from Skyrim mixed with a Walking Dead extra. Flesh sloughed off bone. Mold, mildew, and moss clung to its body like it had been decomposing for decades. Its eyes were milky white, teeth cracked and yellow. And the smell. Dear God. The smell felt like it had its own gravitational pull.

  There should be a spell for this. Cast Febreze or something like that.

  “Great,” I complained. “Freakin’ zombies. It’s slow, but I don’t have weapons or armor, Mel! I need Rovek!”

  [Yeah, you do!] Mel said, then teleported back up.

  I stayed near the light, watching the zombie’s slow, confident approach. It moved like it knew I was an easy kill.

  It lunged clumsily, swinging an old sword.

  I dodged.

  It slashed.

  I ducked.

  It learned. The next lunge came at a different angle, anticipating my dodge. The blade sliced a two?inch gash into my right side.

  Twenty-five HP vanished from my life bar. My stamina was dropping with every evasion. Statistically, I could take a few more hits, but I didn’t want to, and I was running out of steam fast.

  Movement flickered in my peripheral vision.

  Another zombie.

  “Crap, crap, crap…” I muttered, holding my side, playing an awkward game of Ring Around the Rosie.

  I had no magic. I couldn’t even examine the creepers. My only attack was tongue lash, and there wasn’t a world in this or any other universe where I would be caught dead licking one of these rotting nightmares.

  The second zombie lunged for my stomach. I dodged, but its sword still clipped me, taking another ten HP. The first zombie’s strike actually helped by knocking the sword away from me.

  The zombies didn’t tire, they didn’t slow, they could see (ish) even though I couldn’t (ish), and they just kept coming.

  The first zombie swung again. I barely turned in time to block with my shackles. The chain held, but the zombie shoved forward. I pushed my hands up high, using the chain to push the sword over my head. Zombie one’s momentum brought him to within inches from my face. Its breath smelled like a corpse exhaling swampy sewer water.

  The second zombie lunged straight into the first one, plunging its sword deep into its companion’s chest. The first zombie staggered back, sword still embedded but no blood or gore.

  “Jeremy, move!” Rovek’s voice boomed from the porthole.

  I side?stepped then frog?jumped away as Rovek unleashed his stones of fire attack. Like a hailstorm of the apocalypse, hundreds of flaming rocks, pebbles, and wood shards blasted through both zombies, igniting them from the inside out until they collapsed into ash.

  Mel grinned widely as he teleported back to me, then Rovek fell to the ground. He landed in the classic one knee superhero landing sending a circular plume of dust and ash into the air.

  “Can you get any cooler??” I gasped. “And can you do something about this stupid collar?”

  “Suppression collars should not be tampered with, but I have a rune that might cancel the tamper rune. I learned it from a thief.”

  He pulled on the collar looking for the right spot to do his tinkering, then he mumbled some phrase and, using a dagger, etched a new rune into it. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of a faint bluish glow, but I couldn’t tell what was going on.

  After a moment, Rovek reached into his satchel and pulled out several metal lock picks of various sizes and shapes. He worked quickly, muttering curses as several picks snapped. I believe he said something about me owing him new picks. Get me outta this, and I’ll buy you an entire set!

  He kept picking, prodding, and prying until finally a soft click sounded and the collar fell away.

  A banner flashed in my vision.

  “Yes,” I acknowledged.

  “Well, let’s get out of here,” I said. “I’ll hop up there and throw you a rope or something.”

  “That is not possible,” Rovek said with a sigh of disappointment. “We activated this dungeon when I killed the roamers. The only way out now is to complete the quest associated with the dungeon.”

  A new banner appeared.

  “It’s a level 10 dungeon,” I said.

  “Level 10 is bad,” Rovek said. “I completed many dungeons when I was younger. People use dungeons often to level their skills. You should do most of the fighting. I’ll help when necessary.”

  “Can you see the quest information?”

  “No. I told you before. I do not have an interface ability.”

  “How does a dungeon work for you then?”

  “All dungeons work the same. Eliminate all hostiles then kill the dungeon master.”

  “Does everything come back? How? You just disintegrated those two roamers.”

  “Yes. After we leave, more challenges will spawn for someone else to complete the dungeon later. There are more undead available for Vaerunel’s use. These two are gone for good. There is nothing left of them, but Vaerunel can always get bodies. Dungeon masters are cursed to roam their respective dungeons for eternity. Kings of old are often punished this way for war crimes or cruelty. Who is the master of this dungeon?”

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “King Targo of Thalenir?”

  “Never heard of him,” he snorted. “But we should assume he is a genuine threat.”

  “What about light?”

  “We should find torches. For now, try channeling mana into your hand and holding it there. This should glow enough for us to find braziers.”

  I drew mana from my core and channeled it into my hand. Sweat beaded on my forehead as I strained to hold the magic. It fought me as if it were begging to be released. My hand glowed faintly, but it was just enough light for us to see a few feet in all directions. I concentrated on my glowing fist and also on the walls walking very slowly.

  Rovek pointed ahead at a tiny metal cup jutting from the stone. I focused, letting a tiny spark of fire slip from my palm into the cup. Some kind of fuel inside the cup ignited, and the room brightened, revealing a door and two more metal cups ahead.

  Lighting the other two braziers was easier.

  The door opened to a small empty room, so the search continued.

  Rovek continued down the hall, ignoring the empty room. He lit a couple braziers along the path.

  “Jeremy, there is a roamer just ahead for you to kill.”

  “Mel!” I shouted. “Soulflare attack!”

  [Yay!] Together we blasted the roamer with a massive flare of fire.

  The body of the roamer continued to burn, lighting up the rest of the hallway which opened into a cavernous den with three paths tunnelling away from it. Only one of the tunnels was blocked by a door. I spotted two more unlit braziers across the way near the door, so I went over and lit them using the fire from the burning roamer.

  “Do you wanna go through the door or try a tunnel?” I asked.

  “The door first,” the orc said as he walked towards me.

  On the other side, I could hear rustling. “There is something moving on the other side.”

  “Could be anything,” Rovek said. “Dungeons can be filled with all sorts of dangerous creatures.”

  Thanks for your encouragement.

  Mel kept quiet this time. No snide remarks. Instead, I felt the familiar calm from his moonwake glow.

  Thanks, buddy!

  “Stand back,” Rovek said. “I’ll open the door, and you be prepared to attack.”

  Rovek flung the door open quickly, and a large spider violently jumped through as if it had been launched. The thing looked disturbing like an overgrown common house spider, brown carapace with course hairy appendages, large mandibles and two huge obsidian eyes surrounded by six additional small black domes. I could see my own reflection in the large eyes growing larger as the beast flew in my direction in perpetual slow motion as if time had fractured.

  On impulse, I snapped out of whatever was causing my delay and with a sudden sideways motion of my arm, I unleashed a gust of wind so forcefully it cracked the air like a whip. The gust caught the spider mid-flight like it had been tackled by a professional all-pro, NFL linebacker sending it hurling across the room. It hit the far wall with a sickening crunch, legs curling inward as it dropped to the floor, stunned.

  I blinked, breath catching in my throat. I wasn’t sure how much damage the wind spell had done on its own, but the impact against the wall had clearly augmented the effect. The spider’s life bar hovered in my peripheral vision, and I saw it had dropped nearly half.

  “It’s not dead!” I shouted. “Mel, let’s hit it with water and lightning.”

  Mel started spitting water pulses at it, but before I could call my lightning, two more spiders, about the same size, skittered through the open doorway. Their movements were erratic and fast, legs clicking against the stone floor. They came straight for me, mandibles twitching, eyes gleaming with unnatural hunger.

  The banner above them gave me more information than I wanted to read at the moment.

  I raised my arm to the ceiling and summoned lightning with a guttural cry that echoed with more than just magic. Rage, grief, betrayal, and purpose braided together. Mana surged from the core of my being, then through my hands. The air above me cracked open like glass under pressure, and a massive bolt of lightning tore through the roof in a jagged spiral, not a single strike but a twisted torrent as multiple currents fused into one, pulsing like a living thing.

  The bolt lingered, suspended in the air like a divine spear, its tip embedded in the thorax of one spider. Arcs of electricity danced across its twitching limbs, illuminating the room in strobing flashes. The creature convulsed, legs flailing as smoke curled from its joints.

  My eyes burned with focus. With a thought, I split the lightning mid-pulse, reshaping it into an inverted trident of electric fury. The second branch veered sharply, slamming into the second spider with a thunderclap that shook dust from the rafters, and the third arc stretched across the room like a whip striking the first spider, pinning it to the floor.

  I was no longer casting spells. I was channeling primal emotions. And it was powerful. It was almost too powerful to control. Mana coursed through me like wildfire, burning away restraint.

  My mind fractured into memories: Mayor Vaelith smug smile as he sentenced me, Karn’s cold silence of betrayal, Elirian’s bloodied hand reaching for me. Each recollection fed the storm; each emotion sharpened the spell.

  The spiders writhed, their bodies smoking, legs curling inward like dying flowers. The room stank of ozone and scorched hair and chitin.

  Then, silence.

  I staggered, the glow around me flickering. My mana reserves were nearly gone. The lightning dissipated, leaving behind only the charred remains and the echo of my fury. Smoke bloomed from all three corpses, rising in lazy spirals toward the broken ceiling.

  I stood in the center of it all, breath ragged, eyes wide, panting, covered in a mucous sheen.

  I dismissed the kill notifications with a thought. My gaze locked on the spiders, still twitching on the scorched floor, legs curling inward. I didn’t want mercy. I wanted them to feel pain before their death. I wanted to punish them for all I had been through since being on this world.

  “Yes,” I said as I snapped out of my reverie.

  The system granted me five stat points as I had hoped. The crown and pendant I’d won from the Moonwarden granting a wisdom and mana bonus had been stolen from me, so I put points into wisdom to make up for that lose. I also needed more health and stamina to make it through the dungeon, so I added the rest to endurance and constitution.

  I felt the surge of power that came with the upgrades. Part of me wanted to put some points into luck, because God knows I had had nothing but bad luck since arriving in Elar.

  [Are you okay?] Mel asked. [I’ve never seen a frog’s eyes get that big. I guess you needed to expel some anger. Are you okay now?]

  “I havta be. We gotta finish the dungeon. And you’re right. I needed that.”

  I didn’t bother with looting the bodies of the spiders. I just walked through the next tunnel and prepared myself to face the rest of the dungeon.