A leak in Aspiration’s plumbing or a rogue water elemental had created a moist pocket near the edge of the school’s territory where the catacombs brushed against the greater dark of the underworld. Old texts speak of the land beneath as a simple place with the occasional curious cave formed by eons of geological processes or steady erosion. In the modern era, earth elementals had transformed the area into an intricate network of caverns. Those voids attracted portals and from the portals came monsters, creating a diverse ecology, some of which were too maddening for the strongest heroes to look upon. The surface rides on an unknowable abyss that could rise and swallow us all at any time.

  This nook rotted, festered, and was infested by deep fungus that had burrowed hungrily to this place of feeding. The entrance was not so much a door as an orifice. Seeping white growths oozed with hero devouring microbes and spores that two Tesla coils vaporized with arcing lightning. Next to them was a screen that kindly informed us the dungeon was rated at tier 4.

  “I’m going to enter stasis for this,” Coatlie whispered before turning into metal.

  X2’s central eye flared, “Is there a monster in your helmet?”

  I mimicked Coatlie’s voice. “What was that?” I then coughed and switched back to my regular speech. “Sorry if you heard my internal conversations, I’ll watch out for that.”

  “By all means, continue. I find it fascinating how some humans can partition their mind and talk to themselves.”

  “That’s quite kind of you,” I said while covering myself in oil the school provided. Fungal infections could become very nasty, but there was a sure way to prevent an outbreak.

  Fire.

  With flint and steel, I ignited myself and wrapped the flames around me. Most heroes would use this method after leaving the dungeon to cleanse their gear or untended wounds until they could get to a healer. I wanted to avoid the infection in the first place. “But, I’ll try to keep my thoughts to myself.”

  “That would make completing your psychological profile more difficult,” X2 chirped happily.

  As I neared the entrance, the doors squeezed tight against the flames. My hands shoved into the crack and pried it apart while fire danced into every crevice. A shrill, unearthly wail shook the cavern. The sound scraped against my mind, attempting to induce fear of infection. My mental defenses shrugged off the compulsion.

  Two fistfuls of fungal flesh scooped out of the door, freeing my hands. I shoved them in deeper and pulled again with my full strength, which had increased by about a third since my admittance. If I had to estimate, I would be at 37% shade by now. The unique factors of this university had been excellent for my growth, but that was equally true for everyone else. Nearly all my two-ability peers should reach 30% before the term ends. The gap was narrowing.

  More flesh fell to the ground. Growing restless, I reached in and dug my way forward. Each stroke of my hands was punctuated with more of that alien shrieking. Mushrooms burned as the fire coursed deeper. In flame and dark, I burrowed faster and faster. First, my head fit into the hole, then my chest. Finally, I was parallel with the ground and my legs braced on fungus.

  Pressure all around squeezed me, but I inched forward one clawing swipe at a time. When my hand punched through into open air, I stretched to put my other hand next to it and pry at the gap. The door had been waiting for me to overextend myself. Chitin-infused hypha drills attacked from all sides and punched through the chain mail between my plates and into my flesh.

  Spores entered my bloodstream and found an immune system ready to fight a microscopic war. Eosinophils melted the invaders with devouring enzymes. Neutrophils laid traps with webs of fibers and planned choke points with T helper cells. Macrophages acted as the heavy infantry and cavalry, funneling aggression and cleaning up the weakened enemies. Not all heroes trained their defenders properly, but I found it helpful in situations like this. Flicks of aura would compress or scatter spores as my microscopic army needed, tipping the scales in my favor as I continued to pry myself through.

  The drills broke off inside of me as I finally crowned through the wall and made it to the slick spongy ground. I ripped the fragments out and then delicately channeled fire into the wound to scour the infection and let my troops defeat the remnants.

  Once the wounds scabbed over, I clinched the ruined chain links between my fingers and cold welded them back together. I need better armor. The mail would need to be reworked or ideally replaced with a stronger material. Maybe I could reforge it into infernal steel?

  The attempted infection had drained some of my stamina and caused a brief spell of dizziness as I stood. Black mold covered the walls in great clumps. Fluorescent butterflies disgorged from tiny mouths and were devoured in kind by other mouths across the room. They trailed sparking spores that sprinkled over a ring of mushrooms in the center.

  X2 slid in from the gap behind me and dismissed its shield while brushing off one shoulder. “That was certainly a unique entry method. Are you falling into fungal madness?”

  “No.” I stalked toward the center and examined the mushroom ring. They were entirely mundane. “Possible fey incursion.”

  “No, not fey. The MP radiation signatures are wrong, but a creature from Fa?rie may have slipped through.”

  I spread my fire among the shrooms. They hissed and crumpled, charred to nothing.

  “Hmmm, if you burn all the oxygen, won’t you die?”

  “Unlikely, this place is connected to the underworld and its limitless breathable air.” No one was certain where it came from, leading scholars to believe Eldritch creatures produced the gas to lure prey into the depths. “If I do run out, then I’ll just hold my breath longer than the fungus.”

  “Why are you so blasé about your death? Most organics cling to life with panicked desperation.”

  I shrugged and picked a tunnel to walk down. “Death is the only companion to never leave me. I have grown used to its company. Whenever my life isn’t on the line, I feel as though I am rusting. A relaxed mind is a terrible thing. Unconstrained with concerns of survival, it wanders and despairs about things that cannot change. Give me peril. It’s only with death at my side that I can feel alive by the contrast.”

  In the next larger section of cavern, several squat mushrooms glowing with fire, lightning, acid, and ice held each other's hands and were dancing in a circle. Rather than song, they sung with whistling tunes tinged with the elements.

  X2 pried a rock from the mesh of black growth and accelerated it towards an ice mushroom. It hit like a falling meteor, exploding in all directions, punching the other shroom-people with shrapnel. Gravity and magnetic magical effects both had the distinct advantage of being nearly invisible without nonhuman senses, but based on the way tiny stones lingered around X2 and fell, I assume it was using gravity enchantments.

  I followed its attack by jumping in their midst and cleaving the fire mushrooms with my blade. The lightning shroom reacted first and sent jolts through me. My muscles jerked until I pushed the current to my armor with aura. I then picked up the fire shroom corpses and smashed the lightning shroom with it.

  My golem companion was not far behind. Its shields flared from elemental attacks as it drove hands through the creatures and ripped out their cores. Ichor trailed down its protections in an iridescent sheen. Exhaust ports sprayed the fluid out in all directions, surrounding it with a rainbow mist as it examined its prize and stored it for later in an extradimensional space.

  In my moment of purely artistic appreciation, one of the acid shrooms snuck up and vomited on my boots. I bisected the creature and kicked its body into its buddies.

  Both of us continued rampaging until the foes stopped moving. X2 sighed and conjured a drill. “I’ll excavate their real bodies while you harvest?”

  I acquiesced to the request and got to work. These creatures made for a good source of elementally aligned MP, but their durability made them terrible materials for base equipment. By the time I finished extracting the fungoid tissue, X2 had reached the cyst these creatures would regrow from. My companion continued drilling into the nodule, and the entire cavern quaked in response.

  A scythe-like appendage reached out from the depths, grasped X2, and dragged it into the dark. X2 maintained its impassive expression and simply increased the power of its shields.

  I rushed after my ally. My flames illuminated the way, letting me see the edges of the monster holding X2. It was big. Size isn’t what I mean. While the creature was big for the confines of the cavern, it had weight and presence. This small finger of a much vaster network had taken offense at our intrusion. We woke an ancient thing, and it wasn’t pleased to be roused.

  And it wasn’t alone.

  Tiny crab creatures with acidic maws, wasps that injected spores, zombified heroes, enslaved trow, overgrown golems, and a few things that ate whatever name you gave them all tried to stop my chase. Through tactical applications of flame, blade, and a fear bomb, I cut through the chaff and made it to a central chamber with dozens of caves branching off from it.

  In the middle of it, a gnarled and sickly tree was wrapped with what at first seemed like a large centipede. Closer inspection revealed that the hundreds of ‘legs’ were a collection of a variety of limbs grafted together by inky fibers of fungus. Rather than chitin, this ‘bug’ was sheathed in recycled bones, scales, and any other hard material it could get its maw around. Said orifice latched around a shielded X2. My companion remained stoic at its predicament even as fuzzy tendrils reached from within the creature and caressed X2. Eyes from dozens of creatures danced around the monster's head as it tasted its meal. One by one, they turned to me, and the creature growled a warning, releasing a cloud of spores that pained my lungs and made my throat bleed.

  Failing health, monsters charging from my rear, more converging from every tunnel, and my only ally struggling to free itself left a limited number of tactical options. Good! A retching cackle wracked my body. Among the remaining stratagems was one of my favorites: scorched earth.

  I ran around the tree and flung flames in every direction. The spongy surfaces resisted burning until I ignited the corpses decomposing within the layers of tissue. Fel fire mixed with natural flame as the air grew thick with smoke. A trick of aura let me suck the good air out of the noxious cloud, but that was rapidly vanishing.

  The Finger, my name for the centipede, bristled all its legs and charged while spitting acid. The basic attack couldn’t touch me, but the monster itself was more than fast enough to run by and attempt to slice through my armor with various looted appendages.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  A scythe-like limb and the claw of a wyvern cut through my armor, sending lines of black through my vision as I instantly became ill. My nose ran, I became feverish, and cold shakes shook my limbs, knocking me down next to a pile of the creature’s acid.

  The goo didn’t melt the environs. No, that would have been too easy. From the primordial soup, more mushroom-people sprouted with a gambit of elemental affinities. Stillness is death! I smacked a hand down and sent myself tumbling to a new position. After rolling to my feet, I tipped my helmet up and chugged a fortify health potion. The alchemical boost drove down the infections and took my toxicity to near dangerous levels.

  I spread more fire as I dashed away from the Finger. Soon, the creature would finish turning around and make another pass. Before that, I positioned the tree to my back and ignited the rotting portions of the unfortunate foliage with my armor’s ability. The tiny shroom-people were devoured by gouts of green flame and crinkled to charred husks as the other chaff monsters ran into walls of fire from the surrounding caves. Some tried to turn around, but the press of bodies forced them through.

  Oh, it didn’t like that at all. The Finger roared again and plowed through its own minions to gobble me, dropping X2 in the process.

  When it got close enough, I pulled the fel flames into obscuring sheets and dodged the creature’s assault. It had grown too used to its stolen eyes. The monster charged through and hit the tree, cracking it. With a snapping groan, the several-story-tall tree fell over and was officially dead.

  I ignited it too.

  At higher tiers, Ignite Corpse would produce more flame with the same amount of material, but even a mere tier 3 variant could combust a corpse of any size.

  My spirit-stone shield acted as an initial break against the resulting inferno. The Fire Manipulation of my armor still wasn’t strong enough to create a protective bubble around myself from the remaining flames, so I exemplified that feature with my aura. Darkness edged around my vision and my illnesses worsened as my stamina drained.

  When the blast finally stopped, I had fallen to my knees and the surrounding stone was bubbling around me. In the haze and heat with no oxygen to breathe, I flopped down and focused on beating back the infections. Eventually, the stone cooled back to solid and fresh air rushed into the chamber.

  That first relieving gasp gave me the energy I needed to stand and survey what I had wrought. The cavern was charcoal and ash. The charred tip of the Finger was dragged down a cave back to its main body. So don’t go that way. X2 popped up from a pile of cinders no worse for wear.

  Both of our attentions went to a writhing ball of white tissue in the center of the tree stump. I met my companion next to it and said, “If the fungus had captured a life elemental, that would explain where it got the organic material for all of this.” The organisms needed a lot more than a little bit of moisture to expand this much.

  I grabbed one of my glass capture spheres and shoved it into the spongy material. The elemental would probably be thrilled to escape the endless torment of the Finger’s containment device. The creature couldn’t help but repair and fortify the fungus imprisoning it, but it wouldn’t be able to control the rot aligned medium.

  Sure enough, the extra vigor faded from the sphere of mold, and my container filled with a yellow light that immediately dulled. The elemental had gone into torpor after this drain on its energy and the cessation of torment. I pocketed my prize and then stabbed the mold with my blade. The venom seeped into the tissue, blackening it with death and rot until it was no more.

  With its heart pulled out, this dungeon would slowly collapse and be filled by something else. That hole to the underworld meant any sort of terrible monstrosity could fill this void, but it was more likely that a band of demons with nowhere else to go would settle here and try to make a life. Then the cycle would repeat again. As long as portals kept appearing in the world, no dungeon ever stayed clear.

  X2 hummed, breaking my reverie. “You’re a dangerous woman, Mari. Most heroes would have let a golem be dragged to its doom. They might have told Bianca of my fate, but they wouldn’t have rushed through countless enemies to save me. Though… that’s not why you did it, did you?”

  “Honestly, I didn’t think about it. I reacted.” It had been a rough day.

  “Yes, which is the dangerous part. You’re an instinctual and passionate creature. Right now, those passions are directed at slaying monsters, but that’s all you really care about. Playing nice with others, protecting your allies, living through the next day, and Crafting: all of it is in service to your bloodthirst. You have no interests, hobbies, or activities outside of that focus.”

  Before I responded with denials or speeches, I remembered that X2 isn’t human. It doesn’t need any of that. “Here I thought you would be more understanding of following specific parameters with all your effort.”

  “I am! This is related to my imperative to keep Bianca safe. The closer you get to her, the more your overall character is relevant to her safety.”

  “No offense, but I’m not that close to Bianca. We’ve killed one thing together.”

  “Ah, but you see, you’ve Crafted with her. As monster slaying is the path to your heart, Crafting is the way into hers. That’s why I arranged this outing, to increase your favorable opinion of me, and by extension, ensure Bianca was safe from you. Social manipulation seems a far easier means of neutralizing the threat you pose than direct conflict.”

  I chuckled and started walking out of here. We had a long way to go, and I didn’t have the energy to move any faster. “She’s safe. I don’t kill humans.” But I did appreciate the effort it went through and all of the nice compliments.

  “Of course, how silly of me. I can’t help but notice you toasted all the loot.”

  “Before you were nabbed, I gathered some materials we could split.”

  X2 shook its head. “My objectives were satisfied. We should return before your weak organic flesh fails. Shall I carry you?” It offered its arms.

  “That sounds amazing.”

  Without further encouragement, X2 whisked me off my feet and princess carried me out of the dungeon. We updated the information terminal and went our separate ways.

  Rather than my dorm, I headed to the Crafter’s cafeteria. Eating didn’t compensate for a lack of sleep. Our shades stubbornly refused to remove the need from heroes. We could better endure the consequences of not sleeping, but we needed it as much as unpowered people. Since I could go three days without sleeping/meditating and maintain effectiveness, what I really needed was energy, and consuming additional food could replenish my depleted stores.

  Thankfully, the automated machines remained active this late at night. I got a rack of dinosaur ribs, a side of cream of mushroom soup, a plate of rolls, and a cider. After a quick lunch break, I snuck into my dorm, retrieved bulkier materials, and went to the nearest Crafting workshop.

  Three other students were running machines and working on projects. I ignored them and unpacked the Oni’s war-harness. The lamellar armor had many damaged square bronze plates, but thankfully, the creature was far larger than me, so I had more than enough intact pieces to work with. The spirit infused plates were storied by the Oni’s life and history. That would impact the enchantments I put on it. If they were aligned with the Oni’s characteristics, then the material won’t warp my intent while strengthening it. In addition to the plates, I used dire bear fur for the padding and Akashic crystals for the rivets. The fur should make the final result more cold aligned while the crystals acted as a stabilizing element.

  With all the techniques Gyro taught me, assembling and etching the armor didn’t take too many hours. As fetching as samurai armor is, the more ornate flairs were too great a weakness to tolerate, so my version was very functional. The kabuto was a very small crescent near my forehead, I did without a protective menpo over my face to better drink potions, and my sode shoulder protections were curved to my body. Otherwise, bronze plates rested on brown fur and were adorned with shimmering crystals.

  Imbuing the enchantments took the rest of the night. Once finished, I changed into the outfit in the middle of the workshop and swore.

  “Are you alright?” Some boy asked.

  “It’s fine,” I said coolly. Everything would be cool for a while.

  “Okay…”

  I glared at him until he left me alone. I’m not mad at him. A deep breath helped me calm down. In my haste to not only finish in the night, but to also make my first tier 4 magic item, I had created cursed equipment. Metaphysical hooks sunk into my shade, binding the object to my flesh and making it trivial to puzzle out the malicious effect.

  Exemplar’s first tier 4 creation was cursed with the Weaponless property. While wearing this armor, magic weapons would behave erratically. At least the other enchantments worked correctly.

  I conjured an ice-knife into my hand and turned intangible before throwing it. The blade passed through a sheet of metal and hit my desired target. Ice Creation, Ethereal, and Durability at tier 4 would have to be enough over the next week as I chipped away at the curse tendrils so that I could remove the armor. Setbacks are part of adventure.

  When I returned to my room and dumped off all my now useless gear, Coatlie uncoiled and flapped by my head. “It’s very nice armor aside from the fuck up.”

  “No, it’s ice armor.” I walked to the kitchen and began to boil an egg for Coatlie.

  “Tier 4 gauntlets are still a mid-tier weapon, as you humans put it.” She rummaged through the pantry and found the cookie jar. Coatlie coiled around the lid and unspooled it off before snagging a couple cookies with her mouth and dropping them on the tabletop. “Think of all the martial arts you could do with them!”

  I rolled my eyes. “I’m at the peak of skill with no special enhancement to my unarmed attacks. Weapons make me drastically more effective.” I sighed as I peeled the quick boiled egg. “Regardless, I’ll make do. This isn’t the first time I’ve used a cursed item.” I tossed her the egg.

  Coatlie swallowed it whole before responding. “What was the first time?”

  “Shortly after I was named, I recovered a really cool sword from a high tier raid. It turned out to be a demonic sword with a fragment of a demon lord’s memories. The damn thing wouldn’t leave me alone. Every night, I found it naked in my bed, which, given its sharpness, was a fairly dangerous situation at the time.”

  “How did you get rid of it?” She asked around a mouthful of cookie.

  “Trapped it in a magic stone. That normally wouldn’t have worked, but a dragon owned the stone and decided the blade was his now.”

  Nyla vaulted over the upper railing and landed outside the kitchen in a fighting stance while staring at Coatlie. “Oh, it’s you.” She relaxed. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be used to seeing that in my dorm.”

  The snake turned to her. “I thought we were past this.”

  Nyla scoffed. “Mari may have to deal with you, but I’m not a Crafter. I don’t pact with monsters or trust them.”

  “You giggled when I made a joke.”

  “I can find amusement in whatever I damn please!”

  “Admit it, you like me!”

  She flipped off my snake and left for sparring class. I flipped the cleaning switch and had a wave of energy scrub the kitchen. “I should go after her.”

  Coatlie slipped around my neck and turned silver. “It’ll be harder to whisper to each other in this kind of helmet.” Tell me, how well do you handle telepathy?

  I’ve trained so that it doesn’t melt my brain, but I can’t send signals.

  Hello? Can you hear ME!

  This time I responded aloud.

  I can’t read your mind. This is more of a thought language. I could try to teach it to you.

  “Would that work?”

  Probably not. How many lobes can you vibrate? Did I mention this requires touching you to work?

  “No, but this is still useful. I can more easily play off talking to myself than I could you speaking.”

  With methods of communication established, I chased after Nyla to sparring class. The monsters were thin this morning. I practice conjuring and throwing ice weapons at any critters that got close enough. The better my mental picture of the crystal lattice structure, the sharper and stronger my temporary weapons were.

  At class, Professor Burn Bright pointed me out. “Exemplar, so glad you found the time to join us today. I apologize, it seems I haven’t been ensuring you felt appropriately challenged. Since I don’t want you deprioritizing class, you’ll pair off with Gabriel again. He should have enough experience with Exemplar ability now.”

  The two of us met on the central arena. My opponent loudly cracked his neck. “Today’s the day you lose, Exemplar.”

  “You say that every time and haven’t been right once.” I shifted my weight to the balls of my feet and entered a striking stance I learned from an awakened mantis shrimp.

  “No weapons today? That’s arrogant, even for you.” Gabriel’s frame and muscles expanded. Scales grew across his skin, blue fire erupted in his veins, and he grew a serpentine tail.

  “We’ll see.”

  Gabriel broke the sound barrier and ran toward me, his aura keeping him on the ground and area intact. I feinted the punch he expected and turned intangible. His counter hit nothing as he stepped through me and left the back of his skull vulnerable to a backhand. A tail caught my strike before it connected, but I pulled it to pivot into a palm strike with my other hand. He ducked his head and kicked backwards.

  I jumped back and reset my dance.

  Damn, he was a lot better than before.