“Wow, I hope the safe rooms are all this convenient. I definitely need a minute to rest and recover,” Rana compined. Her shoulders were slumped and she leaned against the wall. Everyone started taking their packs off.

  “Yeah…they’re not,” Izumi sadly informed the group. “The first one seems to be like this, but that may just be because it’s a first level dungeon. For me, after the first break we got, they tended to show up every two or three rooms.”

  “Ok. Well we started te in the day, do we want to press on at least to the next safe zone? Or should we camp here and clear the rest of the dungeon in the morning?” Lilit asked.

  If she was being honest, she was tired, but she wanted to press further. The more they got done today, the less they’d have tomorrow. If the rooms were easy enough they might even press on to a third safe room before they stopped. But she didn’t want to try dictating what the group should do. She tried not to be that kind of person. Sometimes it was necessary, but in her experience not that often.

  “I’m not that tired. I think we should keep going,” Awenda was the first to answer.

  “Yeah, this is a low level dungeon, we can press harder than this,” Rana said.

  “Weren’t you just compining about needing a break?” Izumi asked her pyfully.

  Rana snapped her jaws at Izumi, but there was a smile on her face. “Yes, but I’m not that tired. I can keep going.”

  “Same. Plus, there’s going to be more than a few rooms if it’s simir to my first dungeon. We should definitely get more done today while we feel good.” Izumi addressed the rest of the group.

  Lilit silently drew everyone’s attention, “Ok, then we’re all agreed. Let’s take a fifteen minute break. Drink and refill your canteens, stretch, and then we’ll head out.” The rest of the group nodded then broke up headed to the fountains or slid down the walls to rest.

  Lilit pulled out her canteen and drank deeply from it. She wandered over to an empty stretch of wall and slid her back down it until she was sitting with her legs extended away from her.

  She dribbled a little bit of water down the back of her neck and sighed. She already knew from experience that she was soaked in sweat under her armor. But the cool water on her skin helped.

  Awenda wandered over and sat herself down beside Lilit. Lilit looked at her out of the corner of her eye, not sure what was going on. Then she felt something soft and warm rub against the side of her hand. She looked down in time to see Awenda’s pinky finger hook over hers.

  Lilit looked up at Awenda. She was facing forward, but a slight smile was tugging at her lips and a blush had spread over her cheeks. Lilit faced forward and found herself smiling too. She hooked her pinky around Awenda’s. They sat like that for several minutes.

  “We should probably finish getting ready for the next part of the dungeon,” Lilit finally said.

  “Wait, we still have a few minutes,” Awenda argued. Lilit wanted to argue with her, and get up and start pnning the next steps. She wanted to be ready to lead the party to success. But, yeah. A part of her did really want to stay in this moment and bask for a few more minutes.

  Awenda slipped her hand more fully over Lilit’s. Lilit flipped her hand over and interced their fingers. Neither one looked at the other.

  “Ok,” Lilit whispered. They sat like that for another few minutes.

  Eventually Izumi and Rana stood up. Izumi looked over and gave Lilit a sly smile, her eyebrows bouncing. Lilit snatched her hand back and started to stand up. Looking over, Awenda looked a little disappointed.

  “I think it’s time to go,” Rana said oblivious to the rest of the group.

  Everyone started pulling their packs back on and gearing up for the next portion of the dungeon. Lilit slipped the straps of her pack over her shoulders before turning back to Awenda. She refused to look at Lilit now, and marched straight to the door leading out of the room.

  Lilit felt guilt gnaw at her as she lined up behind Rana. She thought she might have maybe been making some kind of progress with Awenda. Now she wasn’t sure if it had all been in her head, or if she’d fucked things up. She hated how little confidence she had when it came to flirting or retionships. Maybe that’s why she never had that many before she died. And it looked like nothing had changed after she died either.

  The exit was much smaller and less elegant than the entrance. It was a single, normal sized door made of a dark wood. It swung open silently when Awenda pulled. Behind the door were stone stairs leading upward. Awenda looked back at everyone, shrugged her shoulders and started climbing.

  The stairs spiraled around counterclockwise. There was a wall along the inner curve of the stairs, so it was impossible to see how far they rose up. No nding or doors led off of the stairs for several turns. Lilit was starting to breath heavily by the time they reached the top of the stairs. There a nding so small they couldn’t all fit on it stood in front of a pin wooden door.

  Awenda looked around and met everyone’s eyes before she nodded to herself and pushed the door open. The rest of the group rushed behind her. The space they entered was empty. A hallway stretched to the left. In front of them stood a grand staircase leading up to the next floor, stone balustrade lined the upper floor nding. To the right was a set of ornate, wooden double doors. The ceiling stretched high above them, crystal chandeliers hanging down shedding candlelight on the group.

  There were several small tables with candles burning in fancy holders on either side of the door they came through. Lit candebra were set on small tables going down the hall to the left.

  “Which way do we want to go?” Awenda asked. Her head swiveled around the area, keeping an eye on everything.

  “Split—” Izumi started.

  “We are not splitting up.” Lilit interrupted.

  “Fine,” Izumi dragged out the sylble for several seconds.

  Rana smirked, “I wouldn’t have agreed either. We already have a small party, and some of us are squishier than others.” She gnced over at Lilit.

  The decision was made for them as the doors to the right were thrown open. Standing in the middle of the doors was a tall, thin man. He was dressed in fine clothing and a cruel smile adorned his features. Above his head floated Vampire Lvl. 2.

  “Welcome! Let me—”

  Rana interrupted him by throwing one of the candleholders, still holding a fming candle, into his chest. It knocked the wind out of him and caught the edge of his shirt on fire. He immediately started beating at his shirt to snuff out the fire.

  “Wow, you really don’t like to listen to monsters,” Lilit calmly remarked to Rana.

  “I hate monologuing,” Rana shrugged her shoulders. “Besides, what’s there to know? We’re in a dungeon. Kill all the monsters. That’s literally our only job. I don’t need to hear his life story for that.”

  “Fucking murder hobo,” Lilit mumbled under her breath.

  Rana ughed, “I don’t know what that is, but probably.” She started marching toward the vampire who was still filing around. She muttered something under her breath as she clinked her axes together. Fmes erupted along the edge and she dashed forward.

  The vampire caught Rana coming at the st moment and ducked out of the way with impossible speed. Instead of burying her axe in his chest, she only caught the edge of his arm. The edges of the shirt and the skin underneath were bckened.

  “Foul wench! I will rip you apart and feast on your very soul,” the vampire howled.

  “Rana, let Awenda engage him. Fall back,” Lilit shouted. “Izumi, summon your phantasm, fighter mode. Awenda…fuck him up.”

  Awenda lunged forward, much faster than her bulk suggested she could. Her shield was leading her charge. It caught the vampire ftfooted and she smmed into him, sending him sliding across the polished wooden floor on his back. The fme on his shirt finally died out. It left it a gaping, charred ruin. Underneath his flesh smoked.

  Izumi’s phantasm sprung up behind the vampire and immediately fell onto the prone creature. Its razor sharp cws fshed out and blood sprayed through the air. Rana took advantage of the vampire being attacked to leap forward herself and bury both axes into his chest.

  A wet, coughing ugh erupted from the downed vampire, unnerving Lilit. The vampire grabbed ahold of the phantasm’s arms as they were swiping at him and pushed them away from himself.

  Rana seemed to only get mad that she hadn’t managed to kill the vampire and with two swings took off the vampire’s arms at the elbow. The phantasm fell upon the vulnerable vampire while Rana began hacking into his body. It took several moments of bloody savagery before the body stopped ughing, then stopped moving. Blood pooled around Rana and the phantasm. It had sprayed and spttered all over Rana’s face and arms. The front of her armor was soaked red.

  If the blood and bits didn’t disappear with the bodies, Rana would definitely end up with bloody, matted fur by the end of that debacle. Awenda and Lilit stood frozen several steps away. Izumi had an arrow knocked, but not drawn.

  “Or, I guess Rana can go berserker. That worked this time.” Lilit tried to lessen the tension as everyone stared at Rana. “Maybe next time we work as a team?”

  “Oh, uh sure. Sorry,” Rana sounded a little sheepish. Like she got caught sneaking a cookie, not like she’d just brutally killed someone. Yeesh. Friggin’ murder hobos.

  The body and all the blood disappeared, leaving a small pouch that Rana bent down to pick up. “Oh, cool. Vampire fangs. I bet these will sell well to the apothecary.”

  Lilit shuddered and stepped around her. Looking into the room the vampire had come from, she found a rge ballroom. Inside there were several bodies lying strewn across the floor, dressed in finery, small pools of deep red blood surrounding them. Three figures were crouched around a final victim. The woman in their arms was breathing fast and shallow, her chest barely rising.

  The three vampires looked up as Lilit stepped into the ballroom. “Hey!” She yelled, not sure what else to say. It was enough though. They dropped their test victim on the floor and spread out to stalk toward Lilit.

  The rest of the party stepped into the room around her. “Ok, for real this time, Awenda gets their attention then we focus on one vampire at a time. Based on how long it took to kill the first one, this is not going to be pretty. Izumi be prepared to have the phantasm take over as tank if Awenda starts to fg. Everyone got it?”

  Everyone chimed their agreement. Awenda stepped past the rest of the group. She banged her broadsword against her shield, taunting the vampires. The rushed forward faster than anyone could react. Two angled toward Awenda and the st, a woman ran at Izumi.

  The phantasm flickered from behind Izumi to in front of the vampire’s charge in an instant. At the same time there was a deafening crash as the other two crashed into Awenda’s shield.

  By pure happenstance and muscle memory reflexes, Awenda managed to bury her broadsword into one of the vampire’s guts as it smmed into her. Far from slowing the vampire down, it seemed to anger him and he began gnashing his teeth and cwing at Awenda as he climbed further along her bde.

  The other vampire shoved along Awenda’s side, keeping her circling and off-bance. As the first vampire made it to the hilt he reached forward, trying to tch onto Awenda’s throat. She surrendered her sword by shoving it and the vampire backward several feet. Then she unleashed a shield bash into the other vampire, sending it stumbling back several feet. That gave her the opportunity to pull out her hammer and ready herself for the next attack.

  While that was happening, Izumi’s phantasm tore into its vampire. She let out an ear piercing shriek as she tried to tch onto the phantasm. Not being a being of flesh and blood though, there was no blood for her to drain. The phantasm was slowed down as she assaulted it, but she was also danger-close and it focused entirely on digging through her chest to her heart, oblivious to any damage it took.

  Izumi started chanting her own incantations to buff the phantasm. Its arms seemed to suddenly speed up. Rana was anything but idle during this time, but had to close the distance like a normal being. Her axes were still fming as she spun past the vampire in the phantasm’s arms. She struck out and smmed her axe into the back of the vampire’s neck. Apparently she severed the vampire’s spine as she just went completely limp and crashed to the ground.

  The skin was already starting to repair itself on the vampire’s neck and chest as Lilit looked at it. “Head or heart. Take off their heads or pierce their hearts. Otherwise the regenerate.” Lilit shouted to everyone.

  Rana looked back, nodded and then casually decapitated the vampire at her feet. The body stopped moving, and the wounds stopped healing as a pool of blood spread from its mangled body.

  Izumi finally had her bow up, the fight so far had been lightning fast. She pulled back and let an arrow bury itself into the vampire that still had a sword impaling him. The vampire staggered to the side, but still focused on Awenda. The phantasm flickered away and appeared behind him. It shed out into the vampire’s back, finally drawing his attention away from Awenda. Now she could focus on a singur attacker.

  Awenda’s swings with her hammer were too slow to be much of a threat to the vampire. He danced in and out of her range with glee. He had already left a deep gash on her side, between ptes of armor. Lilit noticed and pulled out her prayer book. She chanted her healing prayer as fast as she could and watched a golden glow infuse Awenda’s being. The vampire happened to be reaching toward Awenda and touched the healing glow. His fingers immediately bckened and smoked. He flung himself back some twenty feet. He was no longer smiling gleefully, now he was seething as he stared at Lilit over Awenda’s shoulder.

  Lilit was stunned for only a moment. She started chanting her healing prayer at the same time the vampire took off for her from across the room, this time focusing on the vampire as the target. After all, the spell never specified it could only be used on friendly party members. The vampire was closing fast, and she raised her shield as he got close. The st line left her lips right as the vampire cmped down on her shield and started shoving it downward to expose her throat.

  As soon as the st sylble left her lips, the vampire was covered with a much brighter golden light than Lilit had seen before. Inside that glow though the vampire smoked and burst into fme. He screamed a tortured scream that bounced off the walls of the ballroom. He fell back and thrashed on the floor, attempting to put the fire raging across his body out.

  Lilit shoved a smite down the length of her mace and waited for the vampire to still enough that she could hit him. As soon as he slowed down, the st of the fmes flickering away, Lilit stepped forward and smmed her mace into his chest.

  A bright light fshed where the mace met his charred body. The mace seemed to smash through the vampire like wet tissue. When she could see again, Lilit’s mace was buried deep inside the vampire’s chest, and everything inside was a crispy, mushy mess. This was much more gruesome than anything she’d had to participate in before. She had a feeling this dead vampire would star in her nightmares for some time.

  She was able to look around and see that all the vampires had been dealt with before she turned to the side and threw up. She felt her Delver alert on her arm, but ignored it as she emptied her stomach.

  When nothing else would come up, she stood up and looked at her party. Her eyes snagged on Awenda who was looking at her with sympathy. Lilit couldn’t help herself, she left her mace buried in the vampire’s chest cavity and ran into Awenda’s arms.

  Awenda wrapped her arms tightly around Lilit. She murmured soft, comforting noises that Lilit couldn’t make out over her own quiet sobbing. She leaned into Awenda’s touch and let herself be comforted.

  “You know those things aren’t real. They disappear after we kill them. They’re just manifestations of the entropy or whatever.” Rana expined. There was tense silence where only Lilit’s sniffles could be heard. “What? I was just trying to help.” Lilit could just imagine Awenda gring at Rana.

  “That’s so not how you help, sweetie.” Izumi muttered.

  “Whatever.” Rana stomped closer. She awkwardly dropped her hand on top of Lilit’s head and patted it several times. “There. There.”

  “Oh, my goddess, I think you’re making it worse,” Izumi ughed.

  Lilit found herself ughing quietly. She wiped her eyes before stepping back from Awenda. She refused to meet her eyes and turned toward the other two. “I know all that stuff, Rana. Seeing that though isn’t still just as viscerally disturbing. I’ve never killed anyone before.”

  “Technically, you still haven’t,” Rana countered. “These aren’t strictly people. They’re conjured monsters. They didn’t even exist before we stepped into this dungeon.”

  “How do you know that?” Lilit asked. It made an odd amount of sense. She wanted to believe it with all her heart, because that would mean what they were doing wasn’t wrong on any level. She wasn’t invading people’s homes and killing them. It was so much easier when the monsters looked like monsters.

  “It’s what makes the most sense. We’re not in any actual universe, right?”

  “That’s what the little sparky thing said anyway,” Awenda agreed.

  “So, nothing could be just ‘living their life’ in here. Look at us, none of us are living normal lives.” Rana argued.

  “What about like Slokenra and Sapphire?” Izumi asked. Lilit was a little ashamed to admit that she hadn’t even considered what life was like, or how the people that serviced The Inn came to be there.

  “I’m not sure that they’re any more real than the monsters,” Rana said. “Unless they’re like retired adventurers I guess. But it makes more sense considering how many there are that at least most of them are manifestations of the gods or entropy or whatever too.”

  They all stood around quietly for several minutes. That was a lot deeper than any of them probably intended to get today.

  Lilit suddenly looked up from inside Awenda’s embrace. “Wait, did anyone check on that woman they were feeding on? She was still—”

  “She’s gone,” Izumi interrupted. I checked as soon as the fighting was over. “Whether they’re manifestations or not, this dungeon is bit fucked. I haven’t heard anything about there being anyone but adventurers and monsters in the dungeons before.”

  They split up and went to grab the loot bags. The bodies of the victims had not disappeared. Lilit went to get the one next to her vomit to spare anyone else from it. She felt eyes on her and looking around, caught Awenda looking away as soon as they made eye contact.

  It was about that time that Lilit’s Delver sounded again. She remembered hearing the chime a few minutes ago, so she pulled it up to check. Congratutions. You’ve leveled up to Level 2. New move learned: Burning Hands.

  “Oh, hey guys. I leveled up. I got a new move too.”

  Everyone else stopped and lifted their own Delvers. Awenda and Rana had leveled up as well. Izumi was still a level two. Rana learned a move called curse, while Awenda learned breath weapon. The look on Awenda’s face when she read that off made it seem like the move had a lot more significance for her than just a random moveset. Lilit decided to ask her about it tonight, whether they were in the suite or more likely, bunking down in the dungeon.

  “Oh, curse should be effective against the vampires. It slows down the target and causes slow poisoning damage.” Rana informed everyone.

  “Cool,” Izumi ughed.

  The group gathered together and set off back out of the ballroom. Thankfully there were no other doors off of it, so they could cross off this half of the hallway.

  “Which way from here?” Lilit asked the group.