We sat at the wooden tables, munching on ice cream in silence.

  Except for Soise, who hadn’t stopped fluttering around me since the moment she left the bathroom.

  She forced one of my eyes open. “Do you feel dizzy?”

  “No.”

  “Do you feel frustrated?”

  “A little.”

  “Why?”

  I bit into my ice cream. “Because you’re getting worried.”

  “Well I ought to!” Soise hissed. “You had a panic attack in the middle of a public event! Do you have any idea how dangerous that could have been?” She let out a sharp breath, grabbing my wrist. “Show me your stats.”

  I pulled my screen up.

  {Grind : Shock - system_integrity 64%}

  [Disruption effect : 5%]

  [Edge case : 95%]

  [Regulator : 1%]

  Soise almost collapsed in relief. “You’re doing better than this morning. Good. And your pulse is stable.”

  “Can I eat my ice cream now?” I grunted, watching beads of melting ice cream drip off the cone and onto the floor.

  Though I could barely feel the heat, we were still in a desert and it was still really, really hot.

  Also this ice cream was expensive and Sip would lose his mind if I wasted any more.

  Soise released my hand, allowing me to wolf down the rest of my desert.

  “At the very least, you seem…yourself, if a little crabbier than usual.” Soise scanned the bustling crowds, filled with shouts and laughter. “Grind, do you want to stay here?”

  I glanced up at her. “Oh. uh.” I blinked. “What do you want to do?”

  Ardenidi smacked herself in the face. “We’re here for you, moron! If Union Park is stressing you out, then you don’t have to stay here!”

  I opened my mouth.

  “And don’t you even think of staying because this was my idea!” Ardenidi snapped.

  I closed my mouth.

  “Might I offer something?” Master Jujud asked, sitting on a lawn chair behind us with a blue dress I didn’t recognize. It must’ve been new.

  Everyone spun around in shock.

  She waved. “I heard my favorite student caused a disturbance, so I’m just checking in.”

  I perked up. “Favorite student?”

  Toya rolled his eyes, smirking. “Don’t you get a big head. She says that all the time. Everyone’s her favorite student.”

  “You’re not,” Jujud stated.

  Toya stopped smiling.

  “Speaking of which, I have to just say, this is a horrible idea.” Master Jujud jumped off the table, gesturing toward the tight crowds pressing over one another, clamoring for rides. “It’s packed, noisy, disorientating, and worst, demonstrates a misunderstanding in how trauma in Tetratera works and is cured.”

  Ardenidi fumbled. “Well…yeah. Yeah.”

  I gave her a pat on the shoulder, which she smiled at.

  Master Jujud cleared her throat. “I’m no expert, but I’ve had a couple bad weeks myself and I know a few people who’ve dipped into eightyish system integrity. The thing is, there’s little bits of your brain that aren’t actually you, anymore. Which means you’ve gotta find those bits and put some new memories in them to heal it back.”

  So, basically, I had a bunch of holes in my mind, which needed to be scabbed over.

  I nodded along. “How are we supposed to do that?”

  She clapped her hands and we were in a closed, stone box.

  And then she was gone.

  “Guys?” Sip called. “Where’d Screech go?”

  “He’s fine,” Master Jujud said, appearing next to me with Screech in her arms. “I’ll keep an eye on him.”

  And then she was gone. Again.

  “We’re totally in a dungeon, aren’t we?” Toya grumbled. “There’s so much mana in the air, I can taste it.”

  Sip laughed. “C’mon, she just scolded us for bringing Grind to a carnival. Master Jujud isn’t stupid.”

  His hand brushed against one of the walls, and a screen appeared.

  {Three-star : Gauntlet of Sponges}

  [This place has been affected by [Jujud’s Awakening]]

  [In the event of death, players will be resurrected with their stats and inventories intact]

  Toya opened his mouth.

  “Don’t.” Sip massaged his head. “I—I know. I know.”

  Soise led me to a ledge in the rock, glancing around the enclosed space.

  “Grind, you’re scared for us, right?” Soise whispered. “I see what she’s doing. Three star cores are about the strongest monsters any Union trainee will ever face. But we’re a lot stronger than most trainees, and we can work together. I think this is Jujud’s way of boosting our confidence. You just have to see that we can handle this on our own.”

  As I sat down, I noticed the pattern of the rock was different on one of the walls. Almost as if…

  I slipped onto my hands and knees, tracing the seam between the wall and floor. “Guys—”

  Ardenidi shushed me.

  I faltered. “Ah. Seriously—”

  “No.”

  “....No?” I stared.

  “No. You don’t get to fight this dungeon.”

  “I…don’t get to.”

  “Sit back and let the rest of your team handle it.” She tapped the walls, smiling to herself. “Even if something does go horribly wrong, there’s no real danger here.”

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “Well…” Soise trailed off, holding up her board. Our little group was represented by a smattering of pieces in the bottom corner, while clusters of other enemy pieces had been scattered on the top. “There’s some extremely dense pockets of enemies, and they’re pretty much everywhere. We’ll have to move fast.”

  Toya was in a corner, swiping through the Core's name plate. “Those aren’t enemies.”

  Catania let out a huff, summoning her armor. “And what would they be?”

  “No idea.” He pointed. “But these Cores don’t have minions, remember?”

  [Expanded]

  {Three-Star Executioner Core : Gauntlet of Sponges}

  Everyone nodded, coming to the same conclusion.

  This was a puzzle dungeon.

  Executioners couldn't stand minions, resulting in a lot of empty space within the dungeon once the Core started increasing their star level. While the majority of Executioners simply reduced the size of their dungeon, in order to increase their own power, intelligent cores could add automated danger into their shell, through the use of complex spells.

  But that required immense mana, not to mention years of experience. If an executioner Core reached Three-star, it was either extremely good at fighting or trapping its players and monsters.

  “Look, we’ve just got to get out of here and start hunting,” Catania grunted. “If this is a puzzle dungeon, there’s also got to be good loot scattered around, otherwise nobody would search through the whole thing.”

  Meanwhile, Ardenidi had taken my hint, kneeling by the ground. “Guys, there’s something here.” She slipped her fingers into the seam along the floor. “Brace yourselves.”

  She pushed upward, bunching the spongy rock over her head to reveal a tunnel.

  Suddenly, the tunnel snapped back, knocking Ardenidi off her feet.

  “Ardenidi!” Soise shouted. “Are you hurt?”

  “No.” Ardenidi hissed. “It’s like spring. A really, really big, strong spring. Are there any other paths?”

  Toya tapped one of the stone walls, then the one beside it. “We’re definitely at the corner of the dungeon, and—” he wrapped web around his knuckles and the wall responded with a crackle of red energy. “There’s a lot of mana flowing through this one. We’d need at least a million strength to punch through it.”

  Everyone glanced at me.

  “Nope!” Ardenidi growled. “He stays put!”

  “Just let me handle this,” Toya said, forming a web and sticking it to the end of the wall. He drew the sponge upward like a curtain, fixing it to the ceiling. “That should be more than enough to hold it in place.”

  The tunnel on the other side was cramped, damp, and uncomfortably squishy, but Soise couldn’t find any dangers around it, so we went through it.

  “Is anyone else getting hungry?” Sip asked. He sniffed the air. “I know we just ate, but all I can think about is a loaf of toasted bread with creamy garlic cheddar dip.”

  Several stomachs growled.

  “Or maybe a pizza? With glossy red marinara and sausage chunks—”

  “STOP TALKING!”

  We squeezed through an open network of doors and tunnels with a big arrow wrapping around the ceiling, pointing to a trapdoor.

  “That must be the way to the second floor,” Sip stated. “Awfully convenient.” He wiped his hands on his pants, frowning to himself. “And what was in that tunnel? I feel so greasy!”

  Toya shrugged. “Some sort of mildew? It doesn’t smell that bad, though. Might be poison.”

  “I told you, there wasn’t anything dangerous about the tunnel,” Soise sighed. She looked at her hands, rubbing the greasy film on her skin. “Anyway, there’s traps by the stairwells on either side.” Soise skimmed over her board. “Three feet ahead and four feet to the left for the smaller trap, and a huge cluster of mana just five feet to our right.”

  Catania knelt by the smaller trap, holding out a metal gauntlet. “I don’t see anything—”

  Her entire body burst into flame.

  “Oil.” Catania sighed, brushing off soot as the fire died. “Those sponges were soaked in oil. Probably vegetable or olive oil, to appear less threatening.”

  {Catania : Wildcard XX : 20% FireImmunity}

  [Catania : (-3k) 40k Hp]

  “You’re okay?” Soise reached toward Catania, yanking her hand back at the sting of burning metal.

  “Perfectly.” Catania smirked beneath her helmet. “Between my durability, Wildcard, and the suit of armor, there wasn’t much to burn.” Her voice suddenly turned serious. “It doesn’t take a lot of energy to cause a spark, but just one would seriously hurt the rest of you.”

  Arendidi and Soise nodded solemnly.

  Sip rubbed his nose. “You guys seem to have forgotten an important and invaluable member of your team.”

  “What, are you going to stock price your way through the dungeon?” Toya scoffed.

  Sip just looked at him.

  “What is that even supposed to mean?” He muttered. “‘Stock price’ is a proportional representation of the perceived worth of a company's ability to produce goods or services. Do you expect the stock exchange to be some sort of mystical infinite money-producing ability?”

  Toya flushed. “It sounded cooler in my head.”

  “Clearly.”

  Sip snapped his fingers, summoning a blue bottle into each of our hands. “One Qualm each! Potion of minor cleansing, curiosity of your digital merchant!”

  “Couldn’t you just buy us an elixir of fire immunity?” Toya grunted.

  Sip choked. “For thirteen billion Qualms?! No! Are you insane!? Do you have any idea how many Union resorts use fire elixirs to mitigate heatstroke?”

  Toya rolled his eyes. “Sorry I asked.”

  Soise drank her bottle and the oil vanished with a puff. She rubbed her hands. “You know, my skin feels incredible right now.”

  “You’re joking,” Ardenidi grunted. She took the potion like a shot, and her eyes widened. “Huh. Now that you mentioned it, my hands have lost their usual desert dryness. Perhaps the oil was more hydrating than we previously realized?”

  Before Toya took his, he dropped down, inspecting the ground beneath us. “Sip, I’m afraid I have some bad news. This whole dungeon is a sponge, soaked in oil. Everything from the floor to the walls is dry on touch, but if you press—” he stomped on the floor, shooting oil up his knee. “We need to be very careful how much force we put into moving.”

  With the immediate danger taken care of, our party split off into smaller groups, brushing past small chests with rather underwhelming stat orbs.

  {Ardenidi}

  [Brass]

  [(+1k) 100k Hp]

  “Well, it’s something.” She closed the lid, stepping away from the chest. “Grind? How’re you feeling? Sorry Jujud’s putting you through this.”

  “Honestly, this is kinda fun!” I stuffed my hands in my pockets, inspecting the chest’s outer mechanism, which had been clustered over in a thin yellow film of fungus. “Can I?---”

  She nodded.

  I brushed the fungus off and opened the chest, tanking an explosion to the face.

  “For a three-star, I would’ve expected a little more force,” I sighed, dropping the lid.

  {Grind : (-1.5k) 100k Hp}

  Ardenidi smirked. “So. Have you figured out how the dungeon works yet?”

  “We’re only on the first floor,” I chuckled. “But I have some ideas.”

  “Keep them.” She headed down through the dungeon, reaching the central area again. “Hey! Anybody see anything interesting?”

  Sip laughed, jumping up and down, repeatedly flexing.

  I paused. “Is he okay?”

  “Sip just got his first thousand strength,” Toya grunted. “He’s…still a copper, by the way.”

  “Huh.”

  “He used to move around with fourteen strength.”

  “Thousand? Hundred?”

  “Just fourteen.”

  “That explains a lot, actually.”

  Sip threw his hands in the air, attempting a backflip, only to bash his head on the rock, nearly falling unconscious.

  “Let him have a little fun,” Catania chuckled, jabbing Toya in the side. “Everybody goes a little crazy after their first thousand, don’t they? Don’t they?”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Is there a story in that?”

  “No.”

  “Yes.”

  Toya glared at Catania.

  Catania chuckled, ringing around the inside of her helmet. “I’ll tell you some other time.”

  “Is everyone here?” Soise called, glancing around the room as she entered from another passage, then back down to her board. “Good. Since this floor doesn't have anything good, we'll move on.”

  She pulled on the trapdoor, dousing herself in oil.

  Soise crawled out of the pouring torrent, clawing the thick films of oil out of her face. She snatched a bottle from Sip’s hand. “This dungeon is getting on my nerves.”

  “Your hair too,” Sip said.

  Soise chose to focus on the ceiling, where a river of oil continued pouring. “That’s definitely the way up. All that oil has to be coming from somewhere.”

  Toya grabbed her shoulder, lifting his foot from the ground. “Guys, this floor’s getting soaked.” Sure enough, even though he had stepped lightly, oil ran down the bottom of his shoe. “You don’t think—”

  My eyes widened. “There’s no way—”

  Soise nodded. “Surely—”

  Ardenidi and Catania grabbed us, jumping through the stream of oil moments before the first floor exploded in a ball of fire.

  // {Notice} //

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