Chapter Text
In retrospect, Tobias had maybe two or three seconds when the glowing circle first appeared around him. He would always wonder if he could have leapt away in time. In the moment, he’d sat frozen in his cafeteria seat, half a hotdog hanging out of his mouth.
Glowing blue foreign runes spun and leapt in a circle, completely surrounding Tobias and partly around Ronald’s ankle and arm in the neighboring seat. Ronald, Tobias’ best friend, looked down at the swirling light pattern casting shadows on his skin, then up at Tobias. Their gazes locked in identical confusion. The brightly lit and loud high school cafeteria had no projectors, nothing that could reasonably cause this strange light.
Two seconds later, Tobias was transported to another world—along with Ronald’s foot and half his arm.
The blood spray hit Tobias across the face, soaking into his hotdog bun. He gagged and spat it out. The severed arm landed on a heap on top of the foot. Blood trickled loudly down the cracks in stones.
He stood in a dingy dark cavern, surrounded by figures wearing brightly colored robes. Even without the major clue of the rainbow-colored glowing mushrooms embedded in the walls, he would have guessed he’d been summoned to another world.
His best friend’s blood all over him saved his life. Like many modern teenagers, Tobias had grown up on a diet of isekai adventures. Normally he would have asked questions of the wise old wizard characters and anticipated an exciting adventure. But a summoning that maimed a bystander indicated either extreme stupidity or malice.
He’d also read all the isekai stories about a hero who got betrayed and used.
For his second opportunity, Tobias reacted much faster, flinging himself sideways just in time to miss a bolt of light aimed at his head. Even his feet squelching on blood didn’t slow him down. He shoulder-slammed the closest wizard, then ran in the direction of a blinking light.
Behind him, someone screamed, “Get that binding spell on him!”
Tobias didn’t turn to look. He ducked. Brightness shot over his head. Keeping his head down, he ran full speed ahead. The light revealed itself to be not an exit, but a glowing hole in the ground with more runes around the edges.
He paused, realized that someone might take this chance to attack him, and dodged sideways. A bolt zinged by and set fire to a mushroom.
Once again, he had only seconds to make a choice. He wanted to survive.
Tobias had lost his parents in a car crash three months ago. With no other close relatives and a shortage of foster parents, he’d been shoved into a temporary group home. Some days, he woke up in the morning and wondered if it would have been easier if he’d died, too. Now, with death staring him in the face, he wanted to live.
He dove into the portal.
The air turned colder on the other side. Wind ripped through his hair. He was falling into darkness. It felt like flying.
Then he hit the ground.
Pain shattered his shoulder, his wrist, and his legs. The back of his head felt wet and sticky. A single point of light overhead blurred. Over the ringing in his ears, he faintly heard voices above:
“We can still remove his power! He must be injured after such a great fall.”
A sound came like a slap, then someone else said, “You fool! The Covenant against summoning other worlders exists for a reason! They’re too strong to take any chances. We missed our opportunity before his cheat ability took hold inside of him. Now we’re playing it safe. No one could ever make it out of the Nightmare Dungeon. Seal the portal.”
The last light overhead vanished. The pain in his head made thinking hard. His breathing sounded ragged.
At least…if he had a power…then he might be able to survive.
Tobias blacked out.
Agonizing pain had Tobias trapped in a state between unconsciousness and awareness. His body did not want to let his mind wake up. But he wanted to survive. From the pain, he would not last much longer unless he MOVED.
His eyelids fluttered open.
Total darkness pressed from all sides, no difference if his eyes opened or closed. The cold air filled with mouse-like squeaks. The hard legs pressing against his torso felt insectoid.
The monsters bit into his flesh. He howled, a voice already gone hoarse from screaming in his sleep.
Adrenaline raced down his veins, the desperate last-ditch strength of survival. He tried to punch.
His arms were gone. Only bloody stumps remained.
“Mom? Dad?” Tobias’ voice had the infliction of a young child, in disbelief that he existed in a world where his parents were gone and things like this could happen to a sixteen-year-old. “The monsters…ate my arms…Please…”
A creature sank giant mandibles into his throat.
Tobias died bite by agonizing bite.
When Tobias next opened his eyes, his body was whole and healed. In the darkness, he could have been back in his own bedroom at home. It had all been a horrible nightmare. He laughed.
A squeak came from his right.
Tobias leapt to his feet, jolted by adrenaline once again. A few tattered bloody rags fell off him, all that remained of his clothing.
He tried to run. Then he tried to fight them, yanking on the antennae and getting one solid punch in.
As they ate him alive, he tried a million times to summon any magical power.
Tobias lost count of how many times he died and came back to life after the twenty-fifth time being eaten alive.
He’d tried remaining very still and quiet when he woke up. They always returned to the same spot for their free food source. He tried fighting, grappling with them enough times to have felt that they were giant ants. Nothing had come with him from his world, his backpack left behind at the school cafeteria. Even completely naked, he killed a few ants. The cavern had hundreds.
He tried bashing his head against the floor to die faster. It took too many blows to fall unconscious. He tried every fantasy world power he could remember, but he’d only been granted the magic to be infinite ant food. Returning from death was a bad power. It didn’t make him stronger or tougher. It only trapped him in an unending hell. He started out praying for power and ended praying that he could finally die forever.
Sometimes he screamed demands and pleas at the uncaring world: “Why did this happen to me?” and “Someone please save me! I’ll do anything!”
Even at the point when his body had given up sending pain signals, his throat still burned from thirst. He sang to himself in the darkness, a raspy sound. It brought the ants faster each time he woke up, but that could be a mercy from the anticipation.
A patchy beard had spread down his chin. Like his hunger, the beard remained every time he died.
One day, Tobias opened his eyes to a more distant squeaking and crunching. The ants had surrounded and eaten one of their own. They’d done that before whenever he’d managed to seriously injure one of them. For a brief window, none of them seemed to be paying attention to him.
He stood up, because he had no choice except to try to escape. If permanent death had been an option, he would have lain down and died. But death had become his unending hell.
His bare feet moved softly across the rocky floor. When a rock bit into his toe, he did not flinch. Pain meant nothing to him these days. No sound or smell was available to give him a sense of direction. He moved away from the ants until he reached a jagged cavern wall. Then he gripped the wall and moved forward.
Finally, his fingers touched a crack, so straight it felt manmade. Like a door? His heart pounded faster. He breathed evenly so as not to make a sound. He’d practiced silence from many, many times failing to hide from the ants.
He felt all around the crack, feeling out the shape of a door, then a round place where a handle should be. The handle had been filled in with a hard material like concrete. There was no way out.
On the first day, Tobias would have cried. By now, he’d accepted that the world was an unjust place and he never should have been born. He threw his entire body weight against the door, trying to break it down.
His shoulder ached. The door did not budge. A squeak came from the darkness, then many feet scurrying toward him. The sound had alerted them.
It should not be possible for him to hate the world anymore, yet he screamed one last time, a wordless howl to tell the uncaring infinity that he had never asked to exist.
Light blazed from the floor. The ants fled. A husky, smooth voice spoke: “Welcome to the Nightmare Dungeon. By entering, you have activated my guide. As a previous adventurer, I hope to impart my knowledge to those who come after me. Full disclosure, I have not explored every corner of this floor so my information should not be taken as complete or comprehensive, and dungeons may change over time as a result of other adventurers interfering with the ecosystem. The first level of this dungeon contains Giant Ants. They are ranked as clay, the easiest type of monster to kill—”
Easy?! Tobias screamed some more, missing the next part of the guide.
“—and they are unable to enter light. It’s more than a phobia, light causes them severe pain.”
Tobias felt something that did not dare call itself hope. A bit less despair, perhaps. No wonder the ants had all skittered away. He crouched down, for the first time realizing the light came from a white crystal that had been tied to stalagmites near the door. He picked up the crystal and stroked it with trembling fingers, then licked the tip, whispering, “Mine, mine, mine.”
“The Nightmare Dungeon is the most advanced known dungeon in the world. I only risked this dungeon because I have a gold-ranked stealth ability that allows me to sneak into dungeons, grab a few items, and sneak out. I am leaving this recording having finished exploring the first floor, but there is no guarantee I survived the dungeon either. I strongly recommend that you turn around and leave.”
“I CAN’T!” Tobias screamed. Crystal clutched to his chest, he growled and kicked the door. “I CAN’T LEAVE, YOU ASSHOLE! I WANT TO GO HOME!”
The guide continued in the same calm, pleasantly clear voice. “If you decide to continue, I recommend carrying a light source and making it to the next door without fighting. Although Giant Ants are a clay-ranked monster, they are numerous here, and you must save your strength for the far greater battles ahead.”
Door? There might be another door besides the sealed-off one? Tobias stopped screaming and pressed the crystal close to his ear.
“Using a clairvoyance artifact, I have determined there are a hundred floors below us, with a portal to the outside world only on the final floor. Please pack your supplies accordingly. I would consider a teleportation crystal a must, so that you have a means of escape if you and your party should become unable to continue. Good luck, fellow adventurer.”
As the message ended, the light went out. In the darkness, hundreds of ants stepped forward.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Tobias wailed like an infant, fat tears trickling down his beard. “Come back! Talk to me again!”
The crystal blazed bright. “You have requested for my guidebook to replay. Welcome to the Nightmare Dungeon…”
The ants fled again.
As the voice continued, Tobias stroked and petted the crystal.
By the third replay, Tobias’ brain had started to function again. Rather than a hundred floors of monsters, he would much rather break down one door leading to the outside. He tucked the crystal carefully between his feet. Then he clawed at the wooden door with his nails and teeth.
Splinters in his mouth barely even made his pain neurons flicker. His nails had grown long, too. Every time a nail broke, he kept on clawing. Then he snapped off a small tip of a stalagmite to use. He didn’t dare risk his precious crystal as a tool.
Finally, he broke through the wood…and felt cold, smooth stone on the other side. Someone had sealed off this entranceway by filling it in with rock.
Tobias collapsed to the ground and sobbed more.
Darkness. A very familiar pain at the tip of his toe.
Tobias screamed, then his last brain cell shouted, “Replay!”
The crystal glowed to life. “You have requested for my guidebook to replay. Welcome to the Nightmare Dungeon…”
The ants scurried away.
Tobias clutched his precious lifeline, panting. Blood dripped from his toe. He’d fallen asleep naturally, for the first time in who knew how long. He hadn’t even realized his body still needed sleep. He’d been dying too fast for it to ever come up. As soon as he’d slept, he’d stopped asking for the guide to replay, and the ants had attacked him. That had been so close. If they’d dragged him out of range to activate the crystal…
He shuddered and kissed the pointy tip.
He longed to lie down on the hard stone and rest forever. Once he’d had dreams and goals. He distantly recalled wanting to travel abroad and hike mountains. Now he had no dreams except to be free of pain and maybe die. But if he remained here and clawed at stone forever, then sooner or later, the ants would get him. It only took one time when he didn’t wake up fast enough. Or what if the crystal eventually ran out of power and stopped working?
There was no choice except to fight to survive. At least if he died on a new floor, it would be a different and interesting kind of death.
Tobias clutched his chattering crystal and walked forward, chasing that tiny hope of a portal out of here on the hundredth floor.
The ants scurried away from his light. He tried not to weep at the sound of their footsteps. From the wetness on his cheeks, he had not been entirely successful. He licked the tears off his own face, chasing even a small amount of water.
In the end, the cavern was no bigger than half a mile and the second door not hard to find. He would have run straight into it if he’d gone in the other direction during his desperate flight. The wooden door had a curving carving of flowers, and more importantly, a door knob.
The door opened easily. So easily, for the prison that had trapped him for so long. Another tear wobbled down his cheek. A short flight of stairs led downward.
Then Tobias stepped out into a new world.
This jungle was vibrantly green. The palm trees could have come from Earth, except the tallest one only came up to Tobias’ waist. He didn’t know if the bushes with bell-shaped purple flowers had an equivalent in his world or not. The ground had turned to thick, moist dirt. Vines crawled up the cave walls. Instead of sky, blue had been painted onto a flat ceiling, and it glowed, casting down light evenly. Half the trees had been crushed under the weight of a giant snake skeleton.
Tobias panted. The greenery…it had been so long since he’d smelled plants…so beautiful…yet the skeleton…too big to fight…his eyes darted around the relatively small space, seeking more snakes.
A second crystal blazed to life at his feet. “Welcome to the second floor of the Nightmare Dungeon. I got caught by the snake, so I already killed it. It’s my carelessness for trying to save my strongest stealth for later! There are no monsters left on the floor now. I’ve checked even the plants, and they’re all non-poisonous and harmless.”
“I love you, Guide,” Tobias whispered. It was half a joke at the time.
“I didn’t need the mana heart, so I left it behind. If you’re the second person in this dungeon, you are free to claim it.”
A giant red gemstone lay in the snake’s ribcage. But gems would do him no good in this place.
Tobias picked up the crystal, cradling it close to his chest. He yanked a leaf off the closest tree and bit in. The bitterness made him gag, then he slurped up delicious traces of liquid. Here was true treasure. He’d never appreciated before that at least on Earth, food and water had been everywhere. He licked the last leaf juice off his fingers, then swallowed a flower whole.
For a time, he lived in paradise. So what if the leaves tasted bad and there was no fruit? He was no longer being eaten alive. He had lowered his standards such that even lack of pain became a luxury.
He ate. He breathed in the sweet plant scent. He slept on the dirt with the crystals clutched tight to his chest. Several times a day, he played each message, stroking the pointed edges and savoring another human being’s voice.
Then the food ran out.
When Tobias first reached for a bush and found it empty, he did not understand. A thick fog had fallen over his mind since his ordeal. Thinking was hard, but must be done. He sat cross-legged and placed his fingertips to his forehead.
Evidence #1: No new snake had appeared. The Guide’s message had not expected any new monsters to replace the dead one, either.
Evidence #2: The plants did not grow back.
Evidence #3: This floor had no water and no real sunshine, how did plants survive?
Evidence #4: The ants had existed for a long time in the darkness without all eating each other or him—
HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE.
Conclusion: This dungeon was somehow preserved through magic. Nothing consumed here would regrow. He was running out of food.
His finger found its way into his mouth. He tasted the dirt on the whorls. How could he dare open the door to the third floor? The next monster would likely be alive. His guide moved through the dungeon by stealth, not by killing everything. The snake had been an accident. He could not kill monsters himself. Each floor would likely increase in difficulty. This snake would already have been too much for him. If he set foot on the next floor, he might end up trapped in another fate worse than death.
Surely even starving on this floor would be better…right?
He still felt hunger, though he couldn’t die of it. The lengthening days tested his hypothesis. His stomach kept eating inward until it felt like another form of being eaten alive. That half a hot dog appeared in his mind, the rubbery meat seeming to glow. He wished he’d swallowed it down, his friend’s blood and all. He wished he’d eaten Ronald’s severed arm. Surely a real friend would understand. It hadn’t been doing Ronald any good.
He hoped his friend had survived.
Everything hurt so much.
Tired legs carried him to the next door. His fingers touched the wood.
But the ants…what if there were more ants?
He collapsed onto his back, wishing he could just die.
As Tobias gnawed on a clean snake bone, the second floor crystal blazed to life. “Hello, fellow adventurer. You’ve been on this floor for an unusually long time, so something must have gone wrong.”
“New words!” Tobias latched onto the crystal and kissed it. Each word from his dear guide was precious to him. “They roll out the L in hello, how adorable.” From the voice falling in the overlap between a low female contralto and a high male tenor, he’d never been able to tell Guide’s gender. He didn’t care. Guide was Guide, perfect and always right.
“I won’t patronize you by suggesting that you turn back or use a teleportation crystal—if you could, you already would have. Instead, you need to become stronger in order to overcome the next floor. Many people have experienced magical awakenings in dungeons. The stress and tension brings out a power deep inside. I believe that you can do it.”
“Aw, Guide believes in me,” Tobias told the snake skeleton. “I guess I shouldn’t stab myself through the eye with your rib to make the pain briefly stop.”
“I’m going to start with the basics. I apologize if all of this is what you already know. This explanation is aimed at absolutely anyone, even someone from a country where magic is forbidden or someone suffering from dungeon-related amnesia.”
“No mention of other worlders? We must not be common.”
“Everyone has the capacity for magic. Some countries teach that it must be innate: this is a lie. Yes, innate ability can determine your strength in magic. No one on our world can match the incredibly high capacity of other worlders.”
“Me!” He cheered. He patted the skeleton. “You finally know my secret, Boney.” He’d given most the objects around the room names before eating them.
“There are two ways to activate or increase your magic. First of all, kill a monster. These deaths release mana into the air. Some people call it obtaining experience. It’s possible to absorb more power by eating dead monsters, but their flesh can be toxic and this can cause mana drunkenness. Only take this risk if you are in dire straits. Secondly, meditate. As you relax and calm your mind, you will gradually absorb the natural mana in the air. Try to feel and think nothing. It will be more effective if you hold a mana stone. When the stone vanishes, tell this crystal to recite the next step. This method takes longer, but I promise, it can be equally effective. Everyone these days is too impatient, only relying on hunting monsters. Ultimately, all magic comes from yourself and how you let in the world around you.”
“Kids these days. Am I a kid? I don’t think I count any longer. I feel ancient.”
“I know you must be scared and in pain right now. It’s not easy to clear your mind in such a state. All adventurers fear being trapped in a dungeon. Please don’t give up yet. I was once trapped in an oubliette for five days, and I drank my own urine. But I evolved my power to sneak through walls and escaped.” The voice turned warmer. “From one adventurer to another, you can do this. You can and will because you must. I am rooting for you to live and return home.”
Tears flooded like a rainstorm from Tobias’ eyes. He had no one waiting for him. His family was dead. His best friend might very well be dead too and was unreachable on another world. He had nothing to survive for. But Guide was rooting for him, so he grabbed the gemstone from the snake’s ribcage.
For a long time, Tobias sat cross-legged, leaning against the skeleton with the mana heart in his lap. It was not easy to stop thinking with hunger in his belly and fears bouncing around his skull. He replayed the first floor crystal, sinking into Guide’s lovely voice. As he let each familiar, memorized word consume him, there became nothing else.
When he finally opened his eyes, there was no stone on his lap. A spicy-sweet smell like cinnamon lingered in the red wisp rising up to the ceiling. A good sign? Right?
“Tell me the next step, please, my dear Guide.”
“Good work!” The friendly praise made him flush. “Figuring out your type of magic can be tricky. It should have responded to the deepest need inside of you. Yet it will also be influenced by your innate talent. A fire user will never produce water no matter how desperate the need. A part of you knows what you can do, your body perhaps if not your mind. Gestures are not necessary for magic, but it may help to close your eyes or hold out your hand. Let the mana flow through you.”
Tobias extended his arm, still holding the crystal. He believed in Guide. His dear guide had never let him down even when his world had vanished and fate had turned on him.
A tingle ran through his fingers.
He opened his eyes. Nothing had apparently happened.
Perhaps on his first day in this hell, he would have screamed, begged and sobbed. Now he felt uncannily calm. He’d used magic, he felt sure of it, even if he didn’t know what. His dear guide could never be wrong. He needed test subjects.
Before he had time to become afraid, he returned to the first-floor door and opened it.
Above, many ant feet scurried away from the light. They would not approach him while he stayed in the light. He could safely test his power on them. He believed absolutely in Guide’s word.
He climbed up the stairs. His eyes fastened on a shadow at the edge of the light. Holding out his hand, he once again pulled on all his belief and his hatred.
The giant ant screamed once, then collapsed. The others fled.
“I DID IT!” Tobias raised fists over his head. “I killed one of those damn ants!” He danced back and forth, giggling. “It’s all thanks to you, Guide.”
His power was death. He knew that in the place that wasn’t his mind. He could survive death and now he could make others die too. A tiny kernel of malice formed in his heart. It was the perfect power for someone with so much hatred. With this, he could destroy not only the ants, but also those who had summoned him into hell.
He darted forward, grabbing the ant corpse and dragging it back down the stairs. On the dirt, he cracked open the shell and ripped his teeth into the raw meat. He could not even taste it over the growling of his stomach.
“Sorry, Guide,” he mumbled. “But you did say that I could eat monsters if I was in dire straits, and I’m a very dire one indeed.” He giggled. Energy roared through his veins like sugar and a shot of adrenaline with each bite. “I’m eating them! Those damn ants who ate me so many times! I’m going to eat them all!” Around mouthfuls of blood, he laughed and laughed.
Revenge on ants was futile. They lacked the mind to understand it. That didn’t matter. Tobias hunted down and ate every last one of them. With each death, he felt several hungers filled. The hunger in his belly. The craving for magic located approximately around his heart. And the thirst for vengeance that had consumed every last part of him.
Still completely naked and covered in dried ant blood, he opened the door to the third floor.
Heat blazed against his skin. Sharp teeth flashed from the light.
He could not see, could barely think. He killed on reflex. Then he staggered backward, whimpering and clutching his burned hand. On a reflex even greater than murder, he grabbed the crystal with his foot and kicked it onto the stairs. Then he slammed the door shut.
Guide spoke: “The third floor has a fire elemental. Quite surprising for only the third floor, right? There’s a reason this place gets called the Nightmare Dungeon. If you can’t kill such a high-ranked monster, it’s possible to cling to the walls and sneak through the flames with a potion of fire immunity. Pardon me if my warning comes too late, I can use magic to float a crystal behind me to each door but not to penetrate the door and put it on the other side. The flames will linger for weeks even if you kill the elemental. I’ve left my spare potion of fire immunity with this crystal.”
A round red bottle popped out of the crystal. It rolled against the door, apparently made of a material too tough to break.
“If you don’t need the potion, then please leave it for the next person. I’m operating on an honor system. Dungeon adventurers should help each other.”
“I really need it.” Tobias grabbed the potion. “Thank you.” His burn had already healed. This was the first time he’d realized that his power allowed him to heal from minor injuries without needing death. In retrospect, this explained why it had taken him so long to die each time the damn ants had eaten him alive.
“I will also leave healing potions every five floors. But it’s possible someone else already took them between my adventure and yours, so please don’t count on it. Remember that the Adventurer’s Guild recommends leaving a dungeon if you ever get down to only one healing potion. If you have extra healing potions and are willing to replace the missing ones, then your fellow adventurers may appreciate it one day. Let’s all make it out alive together. Good luck!”
Guide’s voice held such sincerity, Tobias nearly broke down crying again. Someone cared that he made it out alive. Perhaps it was presumptuous of him, but he felt as if he knew Guide from their messages. Only a truly kind person would leave advice to help the next traveler, as well as even gifts. Only someone with courage would move through such a dangerous dungeon alone. That soft voice had a soothing quality. He could not picture this person, but he could almost taste their heart. He knew it would be someone calm with a core of inner strength. Raising the potion to his lips, he drank. Then he licked the last taste of kindness off his lips.
On the seventh floor, Tobias ran into a stone golem he couldn’t kill because it had no life. He slammed the door, then crawled up to the fifth floor to drink the healing potion left there. “I was good, Guide,” he whispered with tears streaming down his face. “I didn’t drink it until I needed it.” Although surely he’d be forgiven if he carried at least one with him? The Adventurer’s Guild recommending having more than one at all times. He’d listened to that part repeated over and over again.
He gathered up mana hearts from all the monsters across all the floors and meditated. Nagging doubts filled his mind: what if his power only worked on living beings? What if he could never kill a golem?
He focused on Guide’s soothing, encouraging voice and it drown his doubts.
As he trained, he ate the carcasses of dead monsters. They never went bad. Everything was oddly preserved here. Natural animals should have died of starvation before he showed up. He knew he wasn’t supposed to eat so many, but there was nothing else. No floor since the second one had vegetation so far. “Forgive me, Guide.” He kissed all the crystals.
The next time he opened the door, the golem shattered with only a thought.
He moved more carefully after that, absorbing each mana heart before traveling. On the twentieth floor, he finally found a pond. After killing the kraken, he drank deeply of the water. He’d grown so used to drinking blood, it tasted funny. Then he took a bath. It took great effort to scrub off all the dried blood on his skin. He still had no clothing. On a few floors he’d tried stringing a garment from feathers or bark, but it fell off too easily and no one was here to see him anyway. His bare soles had grown tough as leather. His hair and beard had grown long and tangled. The face looking back at him from the wavy reflection seemed years older. Surely it was at least partly stress. Surely he had not been trapped in hell for so long.
The thirtieth floor had a series of riddles. He could read the writing—had translation magic been built into the world summoning? But he could not understand all the references used. The guiding crystal, of course, had all the answers for him.
When he thought about how he could have been stuck on this floor forever if not for Guide… “I love you,” he blurted out to the crystal. “Is it possible to love someone you’ve never met? Why not? I know you love me. So much unconditional love went into crafting this guide. You have enough love in your heart to save total strangers. If you can love someone you never met, then so can I. My love is real.”
Euphoria filled him. He had to escape the dungeon not only for revenge but to meet the one he loved.
He raced through the next fifteen floors. Forty-five brought him back to reality, courtesy of a swinging hammer to the face. The floor was made of traps, nothing he could kill. He followed the directions in the crystal perfectly to maneuver around. Just as he grabbed the doorknob, his left foot slipped into a tripwire. A dart aimed for his neck—
And fell to pieces on the ground, the feather at the tip rotting away.
Tobias blinked. Had the trap been old? Or had he done that?
The next twenty floors had no living monsters to eat, only traps and increasingly large golems. The last one was lizard-shaped and the length of a football field. Its corpse proved more a nuisance than the monster itself. His stomach growled and his throat burned as he slowly and painstakingly moved the rocks out of the way of the door.
Lying on the stairs, he spoke aloud: “Maybe I should kill everyone in this world.”
He’d slowly started to be able to feel a tug of life outside this dungeon as his powers increased. He didn’t know how to find the wizards who’d done this to him, but if he killed everyone, they’d die too. Except what if he accidentally killed his dear guide?
Shuddering, Tobias clutched his crystals to his bare chest. “I know you wouldn’t want me to destroy the world. I won’t, I promise.”
He refused to even consider the possibility that Guide could have died of old age centuries ago, leaving behind these eternal and unchanging crystals. The world had better not let that happen, if the world wanted to survive.
By now, he had so many crystals that it took him three trips up and down the stairs to carry them all. He couldn’t leave them behind, he needed that perfect voice too much!
The floors grew larger, by some magical means. He wouldn’t have been able to find the doors without his dear Guide’s help. On the seventy-third floor, he would have frozen in winter wonderland if not for the cold immunity potion left in a crystal. Monsters grew bigger and more numerous. He skinned a giant bear to make a sack for his crystals. By the eighty-first floor, the monsters started tasting like chocolate chip cookies, but that might be a symptom of him losing his mind.
Floor number one hundred had a crystal outside instead of inside. Guide had not been able to pass this floor. His heart flipflopped as he picked it up.
Guide said in a labored voice: “Congratulations to both of us on making it to the final floor. I have bad news to deliver. The final floor has a freaking dragon, and perhaps worse, an anti-magic field that blocks our powers. Legend says the Nightmare Architect could turn into a dragon, and it must be shadow of himself. The anti-magic field is the strongest I’ve ever encountered. Even golden-ranked items could not overcome it. None of my stealth works inside, and I cannot fight a dragon. I tried, but…” The recording cut off with a wet cough.
“Guide?” Tobias gripped the crystal so hard he cut the tip of his finger. “What happened?”
The shaky voice returned. “I took injuries. Damage done by the shadow dragon doesn’t heal, no matter how many healing potions I take. My teleportation crystal stopped working the moment I set foot in this room. My stealth powers are still not functioning. I can only hope they return. Perhaps I’m a fool for not running right away, but I did manage to grab the Eternal Lily that I came here for. Since I have been unable to reach the portal on the last floor, instead I must travel back upwards to the entranceway.”
A fist gripped around Tobias’ heart. He understood all too well what his dear guide had not said. The floors above all still had monsters, and it would have been nearly impossible to sneak past them if the stealth magic did not return. Guide’s equipment had all been sabotaged. Many monsters ate even the bones, from his personal experience, so no corpse would have been left behind for him to find. It was possible that Guide had never made it out of the dungeon.
Raising his face to the ceiling, Tobias screamed as he had not since the first time he’d been eaten alive.
When he could think again, the crystal had gone silent. Tobias kissed it, caressed it, and even licked it. If only he could absorb that perfect voice under his skin where it would be safe. “Don’t die, please, my beloved guide. If you do…I might seriously kill everyone in this entire world.”
Then he replayed the crystal to hear the last part. His mouth hung open, panting on every word.
“I would advise that you teleport out of here without entering the room and destroying your equipment. I believe that nothing of this world can break the anti-magic field here, one that was created by an other worlder. There is no shame in knowing your own limits and making a strategic retreat. But maybe you are like me, and you need an Eternal Lily too badly to walk away. If so, then I believe in you. Unlike me, you made it through this dungeon fighting monsters fair and square. You must be many times stronger than me. I believe we’ll both make it to the surface and see the sun again. The dragon sleeps when the door first opens and wakes at the touch of light. I blinded the dragon in the right eye. Shadow dragons can be weak to gold-ranked light magic but beware that natural light only angers them. Normally the portal out of here should appear when you kill the dragon, but it might require breaking the anti-magic field as well. May the luck of an adventurer be with you, friend.”
“I love you, too,” Tobias told the crystal.
He had learned patience from his long journey. He went to meditate.
Tobias had drained the last bit of mana from every heart. He’d filled his belly with the last available meat and some grass from the ninety-ninth floor. If he procrastinated, then he would only allow his body to grow weaker before the final confrontation. He kissed the final crystal one last time, then opened the door.
The shadow dragon curled on a pile of gold, a creature half of this reality and half not. Giant batlike wings were partly insubstantial, the gold shining through. The midsection was a swirling whirlpool of darkness. A single purple light throbbed in the middle: the mana heart. The dragon’s loud heartbeat filled the entire cavern. Thud. Thud. Thud.
Each thump stole away Tobias’ breath and made his entire body shake. This existence straddled the realm of possible and impossible. It filled the air with heaviness like clouds before the storm, if those clouds had carried the weight of millenniums worth of malice. He almost did not dare exist in its presence.
The shadow dragon had a scar over one eye. It could be hurt and killed. Guide had done that. The dragon had hurt Guide in return. Rage washed over him, wiping out all fear. This dragon needed to die.
Moving lightly on the balls of his feet, he stepped inside.
Coldness settled into his bones. His magic was stripped from him. He’d become as vulnerable as back on the first floor, where the ants had taught him hatred. He might have thrown up if the dragon’s heartbeat hadn’t frozen him in place.
In that moment, he did not think about survival or revenge. He thought about whether Guide lived.
Love moved his feet forward, a power equal to the repulsive malevolence filling the final cavern. He clung to the cave walls, avoiding stepping on gold. At first he’d thought the dragon slept on gold coins, but on a closer look, it was a field of golden lilies. The exquisite leaves moved slightly as if alive.
On the other end, there was no door. Instead a silver orb rested on a stone podium. His body felt heavier as he approached, so it must be the source of the anti-magic field.
He’d broken golems, which could not be considered truly alive. He’d destroyed a trap. His ability worked on even that which had no life. Guide had implied the clash between magic and anti-magic came down to whichever was stronger, but even the strongest equipment of such a brave and beloved adventurer had not overcome the field. To do this, he would need to exceed the limits of this world’s magic.
Fortunately, he had enough love and hate to exceed anything.
He placed his hand on the orb.
The dragon groaned, a soft sound that nevertheless rattled the golden flowers. Tobias looked over his shoulder, then regretted it. The massive wings had begun to stretch, consuming whirlpools between the claw tips. An eye cracked open, blazing purple. Foul-smelling darkness gathered in the mouth.
Because there was no hiding now, Tobias screamed, “Replay!” If he died, it would be hearing the voice of his love.
The crystal blazed to life and resumed the old speech.
Focusing on the most magnificent voice, he kept his hand on the orb. He did not think about the sound of the dragon standing, the lilies disintegrating as the darkness touched them, or if disintegration would be more painful than being eaten. He poured out every last bit of what had brought him this far.
Guide said, “I believe in you.”
A dam around his heart shattered. The mad love rushed out. The orb cracked down the middle.
Just in time, Tobias whirled around and cursed the dragon to die.
Darkness stroked the tips of his fingers, and for a brief moment he touched infinity. A hatred existed in there to match his own. Then the dragon faded away.
A purple mana heart fell to the ground with a clatter. Light blazed forth, opening a swirling portal.
Tobias gathered up every last one of his beloved crystals and the mana heart, then plunged inside. To the outside world, where his dear Guide lived.