The next floor reeked of high school science class, mixed with my neighbor’s processing building. Blood, death, and formaldehyde. It hung in the air between the skeletal remains that made up the walls.

  And there was something else, too—an earthy, plant-like scent. It contrasted with the disgusting smells of death and undeath, tickled my nose, and forced me to inhale the stench. I tried to place it, but it wasn't until we looked at the far wall that we understood. Rosehill Mausoleum was under attack, just like the Rat’s Nest people had said. And the attacking force had occupied this entire floor.

  “That’s probably what happened to the Gravetender,” I muttered. I pulled up Rosehill’s second-floor message.

  Tier Four Dungeon: Rosehill Mausoleum (Floor Two)

  Objective: Defeat The Grovetender (0/1)

  Objective: Survive (0/1)

  Completion: 0%

  Open Environment: Dungeon monsters can leave this dungeon for limited time periods.

  Open Floor: Once triggered, the dungeon’s bosses will roam freely.

  Guarded Entrance: You cannot leave this dungeon until this floor is completed.

  Environmental Hazard: This dungeon’s denizens are not its only threat.

  Grafted: This floor has been grafted to Solemnus Six. Expect more advanced threats.

  “Yep, that’s what happened.” I hadn’t missed the single-letter switch from ‘Grovetender’ to ‘Grovetender.’ “We’ve got a problem. The whole floor’s grafted to Solumnus. Things are going to get weird, and I don’t have a good plan for this. I wish I had the weed whacker.”

  “Alright, Hal, let’s talk,” Bobby said. He squatted on the hallway’s bone-covered floor, near where it had turned to a moist, dark soil. “You two messed up my whole plan, you know that. Bobby Richards didn’t need your help, but now? Now, I really do. So, here’s the deal. I’m here to help out the Rat’s Nest crew.”

  Tori’s eyes narrowed. “That’s why you’re here? That’s why we’re here, too. Did they send you? They didn’t say—“

  “No. Listen carefully. I’m playing the long game here. This is the end of the world. We can’t just be trying to pass a single phase at a time. We’ve gotta set up for the next one if we can. That means getting as many people through as possible.”

  I nodded quickly. “Yeah, that’s what we’re doing with Museumtown.”

  Bobby shook his head almost as fast. “Too small-scale. I’ll be honest for a second, Hal—“

  Tori snorted.

  “—Museumtown is a safe bet, but it’s a small one. You’re strong. Tori’s strong. Those twins are solid. You’ll drag those folks through a few phases pretty easy. But you don’t have much else to offer, besides sheer numbers. If I thought Taven Liu down south of here was the kind of man who’d listen to me, I’d ditch Chicago in a heartbeat. I’d do it if he looked like he was winning this phase, too. I was halfway out of the city in Phase One. It’d be easy. But I’m not. I’m here, sticking my neck out for these people, because the apocalypse isn’t something I can put all my chips on one number for.”

  “Okay. You’re here, clearing out Rosehill, out of the goodness of your heart?”

  “Tori,” I said, an edge to my voice.

  But Bobby only shrugged. “Of course not. This place helps the Rat’s Nest, and that’s good for me in the long term. Spread the chips around, buy a lot of tickets. Bobby’s mother didn’t raise no fools.”

  “And?” I asked.

  A grin blossomed on his face. “And this place, supposedly, has an item that works perfectly with my bell-ringer. It’ll let me deal real damage, and I’m just as stuck as you two probably are, huh?”

  Something thumped on the ceiling overhead as we stepped around the corner, and a fog gate appeared. No, not one something. Several somethings. A lot of feet, on a relatively thin section of floor.

  I made a choice. “Okay. The Grovetender was supposed to be the previous floor’s boss. Do you know if any of these Tier Four, Solemnus-grafted dungeons grow extra floors?”

  “No idea,” Bobby said.

  Tori shrugged. “Probably not.”

  “Then we’re up against one very powerful boss. Here’s what we need to do…”

  The Grovetender: Level Seventy-Five Elite Dungeon Boss

  Current Difficulty: Extreme

  Welcome to the garden, friends. Enjoy your stay.

  Dominion Aura - This boss’s lair grants it the Elite status.

  Myriad - This boss’s Elite state consists of innumerable members of a swarm, and will continue swarming until conditions change.

  Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

  Multi-Phasic - This boss must be defeated multiple times. It will change properties as the fight progresses.

  The Gravekeeper had clearly been skeletal.

  The shape of the vines that formed its body had been wrapped around something, and that something was shaped roughly like a man. But the bones themselves were completely gone. In its place was a twisted, plant/monster hybrid, eight feet tall, with a scythe covered in flowers.

  So, naturally, I ignored it.

  Bobby and Tori didn’t. They both rushed into battle. Bobby’s punches rang out across the wide room. The sunlight that poured in from…somewhere…was almost blinding. I blinked against it. Then I got to work on the plan.

  I’d been feeling that same feeling. That resonant pulsing Charge I’d picked up earlier. But now, it was…strange. Different. I tried to think back to the Earth dungeons I’d explored. Had I ever felt this? And why now? Was it something to do with Remote Voltsmithing? Or maybe with being Tier One?

  None of those was the answer. And right now, the problem I needed to solve had nothing to do with that resonant Charge, and everything to do with killing the Grovetender.

  That was all that mattered. I could explore the strange Charge later.

  Bobby alternated between punching the boss and slamming his fists into the walls. And I emptied my pack and inventory of every explosive I had.

  Bombs. That was the solution to the Grovetender that I’d come up with. I piled them against the walls, tucking them against the bramble-covered skulls. Then I tapped the ceiling with the Trip-Hammer—not activating it, just banging on the bones overhead.

  As I readied my ambush, Tori cast Crush, then Gravity Well, trying to lock the plant monster in place. But it didn’t stay put. The ground under Tori and Bobby’s feet churned.

  Then it erupted in brilliant yellow-orange grass—thousands of blades of it. Bobby leaped, then grabbed onto a vine-covered wall. Tori cast Levitate and threw herself into the air. The circle of grass radiated out from the Grovetender’s feet. It stopped feet away from my first bomb pile, light glinting from the razor-sharp blades; I looked at Bobby’s feet, and his shoes were in tatters.

  That circle was a no-go for me, and for Bobby. Tori could just about fight in it with Levitate, but alone, she couldn’t match up to it. Her spells weren’t ineffective, but they weren’t enough.

  I needed to help her, so I deployed the drones. Then I went back to the bombs.

  “Uh, Hal, that’s it?” Tori asked as she Pushed the boss away from her. Vines lashed out, ripping at the air, and she had to drop the Levitate to dodge, then recast it before she hit the rapidly growing grass under her.

  “Yeah, that’s it. I’m a little busy,” I said. The first rover hit the grass, and its wheels ripped into it, tearing out the blades; the tires shredded just like Bobby’s shoes, but the metal wheels held, and they kept moving forward.

  Thin, narrow lines crushed into the grass—pathways that were safe. Or at least safer.

  I followed the first bot toward the far wall and grabbed another handful of bombs.

  And the Grovetender noticed me for the first time. It charged me, its vines thudding against the floor almost as hard as the things moving overhead.

  I was ready for it. In fact, I’d been expecting and hoping for it. As the monster rushed at me, I stared at it and waved my hand. Three things happened at the exact same time.

  First, Tori ripped me across the room, crashing me into the bramble-bound wall hard enough for the thorns to cut into my arms. I grabbed on, letting them pierce my hands and feet; it was better than falling into the razor grass below.

  Second, the Grovetender spun. It started coming apart, its vines splitting apart on its arms and legs. As it…bloomed was the only good word. As it bloomed, its face seemed almost orclike for a moment, and I got another wave of resonant Charge.

  And third, I triggered my piles of bombs.

  I’d piled them against the supporting walls overhead. Bobby’s punches had created weak points in them. And Tori and I had used me as bait to position the boss perfectly, exactly where we wanted it.

  Every bomb went off at once, in a series of dull whumps and massive bangs that echoed off the bone-and-bramble chamber. The first wall went down, crushing femurs and skulls under its own weight as it screamed like twisting metal. Dust filled the air.

  I counted down. Five, four, three, two…one.

  The ceiling collapsed on the boss, and twenty skeletal Crypt Guardians filled the room.

  The plan had worked perfectly.

  “Run!” I yelled as the skeletal knights stared at the Grovetender. The boss picked itself up, unwinding completely into a squidlike monstrosity of vines and roots and a single, rapidly-blooming flower. Then they charged into battle against each other.

  Tori and Bobby met me next to the boss room’s fog gate. “Think they’ll kill it?” Tori asked.

  I shrugged. “I have no idea. What do you think?”

  “They’ve got a good shot,” Bobby said. “I’d give them even odds, and whoever wins, they’ll be in pretty poor shape. I say we wait it out for a bit.”

  “I agree.” I sat down and watched as twenty—no, seventeen now—knights hacked wildly at the vine monstrosity, and the boss slammed around with its tendrils and filled the air with spores that would have been lethal if we were closer.

  It took almost five minutes. By the time they were done, only three skeletons were left.

  Boss Defeated: The Grovetender

  Dungeon Delvers who were not in the arena will receive fifty percent of your team’s experience.

  Level Up! 65 to 66

  “Loot, loot, loot!” Tori yelled as the boss died.

  We finished off the last three Crypt Guardians without too much trouble; Tori leveled up again, while I didn’t quite make it.

  Tome of Skeletonize (Epic)

  User learns the spell Skeletonize, which resurrects fallen enemies as skeletal minions. The minion’s level is fifty percent of the original monster’s, and it responds to basic, one-word commands.

  Copper Goggles (Rare, Charge 12)

  +8 Awareness

  These copper-framed goggles increase the damage of all spell effects against living monsters, but reduce it against undead ones.

  Clutch of Undeath (Epic, Charge 10)

  +6 Awareness, +6 Mana

  These cold iron brass knuckles create resonance when used against an enemy’s weak point, causing increased damage for each impact while the weak point persists.

  Grovetender’s Heart (Epic, Charge 25)

  +5 Body, +5 Awareness, +5 Mana

  This artifact enables the user to create controlled vines, which can be used as armor or weapons. The Grovetender’s Heart is a powerful relic from Solemnus-Six and has increased power when on that planet.

  “That’s the one,” Bobby said, reaching for the Clutch of Undeath. I stared at Tori, and she nodded and bit her tongue. Tori looked at the heart, and I shook my head. It’d be powerful for her, but I needed her to take the Copper Goggles. They wouldn’t quite replace the Eyes of Perfection, but they’d be close. That stacking buff was incredibly strong, even as we outleveled the gear’s stats.

  As soon as I could, I grabbed the Grovetender’s Heart.

  I didn’t care about the vines, and I wasn’t planning on using it. But the resonant Charge I’d detected in Rosehill Mausoleum had cut off the moment the boss died. If I wanted to learn more about it, I’d need to study its heart.