Giovanni used his Ice Manipulation card to throw three ice spikes at the Frozen Soul, one after another. The first spike missed, but the second and third hit the monster’s chest. The spikes stuck deep into the monster.

  The Frozen Soul grabbed the ice spikes and pushed them further into its body. It grew slightly. Giovanni didn’t notice because he was distracted by Asta.

  When the ice monster sent forth its wave of freezing mist, she pushed her shield forward. Instead of the attack bouncing off, the ice magic sunk deep into the shield and caused it to sprout frost and small spikes of ice.

  Asta screamed as her hand was stabbed by the ice and burnt from the cold. She tried to throw off her shield, but it was frozen to her right hand. She used her left to yank it off and threw it to the floor.

  The Frozen Soul sliced the air, sending out another wave of freezing magic. Asta stumbled back, tripping over the shorter Giovanni.

  He was in the process of shooting another three ice spikes at the monster, only just realizing that it wasn’t working as Asta bowled him over.

  Gus turned towards Max. “Should I jump in?”

  “Yeah, go ahead,” Max said sadly.

  Gus stepped forward and swung his huge war hammer. The head of the hammer hit the monster’s chest and shattered it, sending bits of monster flying across the room.

  The notice startled Max, because it was the first one he had seen since they entered the dungeon. The other monsters must have been too weak for him to gain essence from. He was a bit overleveled for the first floor of a first layer dungeon. Hopefully the monsters on the upper floors would be stronger.

  Giovanni and Asta slowly picked themselves up. Bisrat checked on Asta’s arm while Max went to go fix the leaking pipe. He needed the space to calm down. He wrapped the metal sheet around the copper pipe and held it there as the heat from the steam activated the glue.

  Neither of the newbies had reacted well to a situation where they had to change tactics. Max was considering ending the interview now and sending them home after they beat the first floor.

  On the other hand, people can learn, he should give them a chance to prove themselves. He walked back over to them.

  “Alright, you guys learned some new things there. Asta, your card won’t work against magic, and Giovanni, ice attacks won’t work against a monster made of ice. I’ll give you some time to think of some workarounds. We’ll get going again when you are ready,” Max said, trying to be professional.

  The expression on Gus’ troll face was anything but professional, but at least he didn’t Message everyone what he was thinking.

  They got going about ten minutes later. By then the room had warmed up a bit and one of the shafts was slowly moving. Max saw the shafts studding the room as a progress bar. When they were done with the sixth floor, all of them would be moving.

  They ran into their next Frozen Soul in the eleventh room. There were two ice monsters in the room, both of them level four. Max gestured for the candidates to take another shot at attacking.

  Asta got around her limitations by throwing her mace. It spun end over end and hit the monster in the chest. To Max’s surprise, it actually worked. The impact was enough to send deep cracks through its body. When the monster shuffled forward, the cracks widened and it shattered.

  Giovanni used his sword to hack at the monster. He had no technique, just wild slashes. When the Frozen Soul sent out a wave of ice magic, he used his card to disperse the attack. It took several hits, but eventually he got the monster down.

  There was no notification about essence gathered. Max suspected that any monster under level six wouldn’t give him essence now that he was above level twelve.

  Max walked over and said, “Good job, both of you. Giovanni, as we climb, work on getting more deadly with your sword. Asta, your weapon is perfect for shattering ice monsters, but throwing away your only weapon in combat is less than ideal.”

  Asta nodded sheepishly, but Giovanni bristled at the directive. Max forced himself not to roll his eyes.

  He continued, “The next room is the boss of the first layer. I think you two can take it on yourselves. It’ll be the last time you fight on your own. We’ll work on party tactics after this.”

  Once they were ready, Gus opened the door and stepped out of the way. Steam billowed out, leaking from pipes along the wall. There was a single monster in the room, one that attacked right away.

  Rabid Furball Level 8

  This furball was about five feet tall and foaming at the mouth. Its steel hooves threw up sparks as it ran. Poofy hair was matted down from all the steam. It raced forward, jumping to the side to flank Asta.

  She hadn’t walked into the room yet, so the maneuver didn’t work. The monster had to redirect again and come at Asta from the front. She shield bashed the monster, sending it tumbling backwards.

  As it rolled to a stop, Giovanni fired his ice spikes one after another. The spikes pierced deep into the monster’s fur. A few moments later the heat from the room melted the spikes enough that they slid out of the fur. They were clean, all three had been stopped by the fur before they got to the flesh.

  The Rabid Furball shook itself and charged again. Asta pushed her shield forward again, redirecting the force into the floor this time. The monster bounced off the shield and then the floor, its hooves comically flailing about. She swiped at the monster with her mace, but the furball rolled out of the way just in time. The mace clanged off of the metal floor.

  Instead of charging forward a third time, the furball carefully approached. It baited out a shield bash and then slipped around it. It bit down on her forearm and yanked backwards. Asta’s metal bracer came loose and the monster stumbled back, only holding the armor in its mouth.

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  Giovanni sprayed water on to the monster’s hooves and sent forth a wave of ice magic. The furball’s legs froze to the floor, trapping it in place.

  Asta stood there for a moment before Giovanni yelled, “Attack, now!”

  The combined efforts of Asta’s mace and Giovanni’s sword quickly dispatched the stuck boss. Not a moment too soon, as the ice quickly melted from the heat in the room.

  A door in the back of the room creaked open. Max smiled and patched up the boiler that was spewing steam into the room. The room’s temperature slowly dropped down to comfortable levels.

  For the first time, Max walked up the stairs to the second floor. He made an effort to refocus. He had fallen into the seasoned veteran roll because Asta and Giovanni were so new. But the truth was he was still inexperienced. He needed to keep his wits about him.

  Gus clearly didn’t feel the same way. He sauntered into the next room and Messaged them all.

  “So, can we speed things up now that your little test is over? I want to get through this kindergarten shit.”

  He swept out his arms as he spoke, shattering a Frozen Soul as if by accident. Bisrat didn’t say anything, but sent a trio of stilettos out to kill the Rabid Furballs in the room. Less than twenty seconds after they entered the room, all four monsters were dead.

  Max huffed and said, “Ok, yeah. It seems like this floor won’t be too hard. We can speed up a bit as long as we are still careful. But as soon as the room design changes, or a new enemy appears, we slow down, ok?”

  Gus gave him a mock salute and headed for the next door. Asta and Giovanni had to hurry to catch up. Bisrat retrieved her knives and they were on to the next room.

  Just like the guide said, there weren’t any new monsters on the second floor. Just increasing numbers of Frozen Souls and Rabid Furballs. Their party breezed through the floor, barely stopping to fight. Asta got better at deflecting charges instead of bouncing them back, and Giovanni focused on crowd control instead of getting the kill.

  The boss of the second floor was surprising in its banality. Despite what the guide had said, he had expected something more.

  Rabid Furball Level 12

  This one at least was smart enough not to charge forward. It stayed put in the steam filled room where it knew it had the terrain advantage . Unfortunately for the six foot tall monster, Max had the range advantage.

  He pulled out his crossbow and loaded it while keeping an eye on the twitching monster. Then he shouldered and fired the weapon, activating the drill as he did so. The extra few points in flow made the entire process smoother. Not only was it easier to aim, activating the drill-bolt's magic took much less mental effort.

  The yellow beam of magic led the way for the bolt, piercing deep into the monster’s head before it cut out. The furball made a little gasp and fell to the floor.

  Max tsked. It was still minor. He had hoped that since the monster had been level 12 that the essence gathered would be major. Maybe the system accounted for how easy it had been for him.

  Asta said, “How many different weapons do you have in your belt of holding?”

  “Several,” Max replied with a grin.

  “What’s going on? Are you the governor’s kid or are you loaded?” Giovanni asked.

  “No, not rich. Not yet anyway. We just got lucky to survive the third floor and that came with some powerful cards.”

  Bisrat nodded along and helped patch up the two leaks in the room. Max was starting to wonder if he would need more patches.

  Before they moved up to the next floor, Max turned to Asta and Giovanni. “Before we move on, do either of you want to cut things short? We can walk downstairs and out from here.”

  “I’m in for as long as you guys want to fight,” Giovanni said.

  “Me too,” Asta agreed.

  Max smiled. He was excited to use his belt full of weapons. They climbed higher. The third floor held a new monster type and a new room layout.

  In addition to huge gear shafts, there were also vertical gears strewn about the room. Some were moving, others weren’t. The frozen gears broke up the sight lines of the room and they had to move into the room before they ran into any monsters.

  They were in between a pair of groaning gears when a pair of monsters attacked. A Frozen Soul attacked from the front. At the same time, a new monster attacked from behind. A white furred monster leapt atop Bisrat and started clawing at her armor.

  Lesser Yeti Level 4

  She cried out and tried to push it off, but didn’t have the strength. Her armor was holding up, but her tail wasn’t. The yeti had found gaps between her tail segments and cut deep. Max jumped to help her. He didn’t want to accidentally hurt Bisrat, so he didn’t swing his hammer at the monster atop her.

  Instead, he shoved his hammer in between the two struggling combatants. He made sure the hammer head was pointing the right way and triggered its magic. A blue dome appeared and shot outward. It obliterated the monster’s chest, sending a spray of blood to paint the gears. The monster fell to the ground in two pieces.

  A flurry of ice crystals passed through where the monster had just been. Giovanni tried to help, but he was a bit late. Max still gave him a nod of respect. Then he hurried to help Bisrat.

  There was a deep cut between two segments of tail, along with a dozen small scrapes along the chitin. She was twisted around to examine her tail. Max pulled out his first aid kit and rushed forward.

  “How bad is it? Do I need to give you our healing potion?”

  “No, no. This is fine. Won’t even make me move slower. It’ll teach me to watch our backs better.”

  Max nodded and unrolled a bandage then he paused. “Are you ok with me touching your tail?”

  She thought about it and nodded. Then she turned away. He cleaned and bandaged her up. She squirmed every time he touched her, which had a new meaning when he realized that touching her tail was an intimate act. He did his best to keep it brief.

  Once Max was sure that Bisrat was fine, they moved on. The next room looked like the first, and no monsters came running when Gus yelled out.

  “Ok, new formation. If we are sneaking around a room, I want Gus up front and Asta guarding our rear,” Max said.

  “Are you sure? I was thinking I could guard Asta’s juicy rear...”

  “Dude! Have some professionalism.”

  “I’m a troll, don’t we get a pass or something?”

  “No. And unless you want me to kick you off the party, you’ll treat everyone with respect.”

  Gus grumbled but didn’t send a new Message.

  Asta didn’t seem to care either way. She moved to the back of the group and held up her shield. This time when they were attacked from both sides, no one was injured. Max helped Asta beat the Lesser Yeti to a pulp.

  Afterwards, Max took out the grease can and got to work on the gears. It was harder than expected, he had to clear obstructions and clean out the old grease first. Asta and Bisrat joined him in the work and they got all the gears turning again. They moved on shortly afterwards.

  The boss room of the fourth floor was another boiler room, but this time ice was clogging the pipes. Four tall monsters stood up as one when the door opened.

  Lesser Yeti Level 6

  Lesser Yeti Level 6

  Frozen Soul Level 12

  Frozen Soul Level 12

  Max’s smile dropped. His plan of sniping the boss again wasn’t going to work. All four monsters roared and charged forward.