On the trail, one can’t be constantly vigilant. You would wear yourself out by the first day if you were to constantly scan the leaves of every tree or bush you see. Yes, there might be a spy or sniper hidden in each shadow, but the marches are long, and the shadows uncountable. You must pace yourself, lest the strain of exhaustion drive the mind to madness.

  Here, the danger was more immediate. Constant vigilance paid off. Around every corner, a kobold might be lurking with a spear, giant spiders could drop from above, or spring-loaded bolts might be coiled at the ready in their traps. In these claustrophobic corridors, danger was ever present, as opposed to the days of endless marching where nothing would happen, only to be disturbed by one of your men taking an arrow from nowhere to the head—that’d jolt the adrenaline back in.

  “I’m glad things are back to normal here,” Justin muttered. On the ground before us lay three goblins, normal size, with simple leather armor instead of plate and just a simple spear and notched swords for weapons. His eyes snagged on the blood dripping off the hatchets in the clawed hands of the towering, jackal-headed gnoll. “Well as normal as can be.”

  The walls of this level were what one would expect for a dungeon, rough-hewn granite blocks dotted every so often by gargoyle statues that popped up in the torch light or stone plaques with runic writing on them, none in languages I recognized—nothing to stir up any disturbing questions about the past.

  Up above, the ceiling was composed of irregular stone slabs, roughly fitted against each other with gaps in between. Nothing to suggest anything manufactured or mass-produced.

  “Yes, it seems that this level at least has been reset.” Serina stood up empty handed after rifling through the corpses. It seemed nothing was worth keeping.

  Reset, according to one of the handbooks, refers to when a dungeon level goes back to its default state after it had been fully cleared or enough idle time had passed.

  These words, these concepts… The tightness of the action down here, the strange artificial pacing, the cadence of the encounters, the placement of the monsters—it all felt way too convenient.

  Isn't it calling out that it’s a game a little too blatantly? Why else would they set it up this way, unless it’s… a training simulation? But the magic stones… it’s definitely a resource they are gathering here.

  Serina peeked around the corner into a dark exit to a side room. She waved us back and Kamuel smothered the light of the everbright torch with his hand.

  It’s good the flames aren’t real.

  The gnoll’s nose twitched as he sat on his haunches beside me. His muscles tensed, lips pulled back to reveal his yellow canines. A low guttural growl escaped.

  “Stay Polly,” I whispered, placing a hand upon his yellow fur. It felt surprisingly soft, reminding of the hound that I had taken to running with back at the farm.

  I hadn’t named the gnoll after the hound. I named him after Pollichon because the droopy look he’d sometimes get was the spitting image of Pollichon whenever I berated him for taking things too far on my behalf.

  No, the men don't need flowers in their hair to show they follow the Maid.

  Serina pulled back the draw string of the bow.

  Twang!

  She let loose an arrow, sailing silently into the darkness. Then her hand swung down, thrusting two fingers forward.

  “Go, hit the two in the back.” I hissed into Polly’s pointed ear. I had already looked into the room with my [Shadow Fingers] and saw five figures lying in wait like set pieces on a board game. In the front was a goblin warrior wielding an axe flanked by two wolves. Behind him was a goblin shaman, dressed in leather rags and no dreadlocks. A large, black salamander was splayed out on the floor beside the shaman, crawling about, its moist skin etched with glowing lines of lava.

  A sharp cry of pain screeched through the air as the arrow hit home. Zadina and Gorian rushed into the darkness, but Polly had already launched himself ahead of them. The bulk of his thigh muscles propelled him forward. He howled as he leaped over the front row of the goblin warrior and wolves. They were caught staring upwards by Zadina and Gorian crashing into their flank.

  Polly landed with a downward cross-arc of his twin hatchets, sundering the crude staff that the shaman raised in defense. The goblin fell backwards, blood from its face spurting between its fingers. The salamander hissed. Its jaws opened as Polly swung his hatchet down upon its head.

  Whoosh!

  A cloud of fire mushroomed up into the room’s high ceiling, knocking everyone inside back.

  When the smoke cleared, only piles of ash remained where the monsters once stood.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  Serina’s fingers dug through the charred remains on the ground and picked out a small ruby like stone. “One magic stone, small but it’s fire. And…” She moved over to the other pile of ash, and held up a ring with a skull center piece. Her green eyes narrowed as she turned it over in her hand. “Weakly magical. A slight bonus to magic. You want it Justin, Joan?”

  Justin shook his head vigorously. “Yeah no, that’s made of bone isn’t it? Too creepy for me.”

  I shook my head as well, having already identified the ring. It was only +2 to [Magic] and I wasn’t enamored by the look of it either. But my attention was on Polly. The fur on half his face was scorched black. His breath came in ragged spurts, but he didn’t seem to be in pain. He didn’t flinch when I stroked his charred fur. My fingers came away smudged with black ash.

  I had sent him into this. I should have known what the lines on that salamander meant.

  A shard of pain stabbed my chest as my ash-smeared fingers rubbed against each other.

  It never felt good sending men to their deaths. I needed to be up front with them, with him.

  My eyes found Kamuel’s and he shook his head. “I’m sorry. But my faith does not allow me to heal evil monstrosities.”

  Gorian rested a gauntlet on my shoulder which was covered by the leather jacket that I’d changed into. “Don’t beat yourself up over it, lass. It’s a pet monster.” He gestured to the three half burnt corpses up front. “Better them than us, you know?”

  My teeth gnashed together as I bit back the surging desire to lash out.

  He’s on our side! I treat my pets better than this!

  Once the hound that I ran with stepped on a shard of wood, driving splinters deep into its paw. I tried my best to pull all the splinters, but it was still limping gingerly by the time I was done. So I did what I had to: I scooped him up in my arms and carried him back home. I was strong enough for that.

  Many lifetimes had worn away the name of the hound from my memories, but that sensation of him nuzzling his wet nose against my arm, and his soft whimpers vibrating through me as we approached home under the soft morning light would never fade.

  Polly nuzzled his burnt cheek against my palm.

  A gauntlet tugged at me. “Come on, lass. We are almost half way through this level. Let’s get to the end before sleep.”

  —

  I was more careful on the subsequent encounters, taking care to thoroughly explore with [Shadow Fingers] before sending Polly in. Since my shadow mastery was high, it only cost a small amount of Mana, and I had recovered a bit from the rest over dinner.

  The party didn't have any trouble with the encounters at this level, so they made me stay back to conserve myself, but they kept on relying on Polly as a meatshield.

  I couldn’t identify through my [Shadow Fingers] but I could still get a rough visual assessment of how strong the enemies might be. The main thing was not letting him go off far ahead of the others. I’d tell him when to go, who to hit, where and how hard.

  Polly couldn’t speak Avatinian, but the way his eyes fixated on me as I gave him instructions and the fact that he actually followed them showed that he understood.

  His eyes just glazed over when others tried to direct him, like telling him to attack that spider or the centipede that just popped up.

  It was hard to tell if it was due to him not understanding, or him being only seduced by me.

  Ok, that last bit sounded bad, but it could also be due to my [Demonic] nature. I didn’t like that idea either.

  Being over three times my old [Intellect] score was having some unexpected effects on me. More and more, I found myself picking up Steve’s old gaming habits: the obsessiveness about tracking everything and constantly fiddling with numbers, behaviors that had been locked away for so long in the dusty attic of my mind.

  As we progressed through the dungeon, I jotted down in my notes the XP I was getting from the encounters, along with the types of monsters there. Since I wasn’t doing much except for scouting, and planning the fights, I spent the time during the fight writing out a table of all the monsters and their relative XP multipliers. I used relative XP because I was sure by now that I was XP capped due to power leveling.

  3 XP for one goblin is ridiculous! But to be fair, it only took one glare from Zadina to send the goblin down on its ass.

  I also observed the spells that everyone cast, and took notes about them. Since they created flames in the air, Justin’s spells were the easiest to see, even though he was so quick with them. I got a peek at Serina’s trap detection spell as she blew the waves of magic from her palm. Kamuel’s buff spells were a lot harder to observe, there was no way for me to see how the flow of magic entered and moved inside everyone’s body.

  “So, you think we should just run up and hit them?” Gorian rubbed his chin, his eyes scanning over the diagram I drew in the dirt.

  “It’s a long room with torches lining the walls, so they will see us coming regardless. Like I said, the simplest approach is best here. The two of you will rush and hit them here.” I tapped on a few circles with a stick. “When their archers turn to focus on you two, Justin will hit the cluster here with a fireball, and for the other Serina will use… smoke?” I gazed over at her for confirmation.

  “I don’t get how you can see the room with this much detail. We are nowhere close to the entrance.” Serina sighed as she studied my drawing, focusing on the right side where three circles were hidden behind a pillar in the corner. “But yes, if they are this close together I can put smoke on them.”

  “I haven’t been wrong before.” I didn’t care to elaborate, and Serina didn’t press. “But after the smoke, Polly will jump up to where the archers are and clear them out. Just make sure you hit the caster that’s hidden behind them first, ok?”

  “Arruuuf!”

  A low bark sounded, and a wet snout pushed up against the side of my face. He was close enough that his hot breath was practically licking my face. “Hey, stop… you’re too close!”

  Zadina yanked him back by the scruff of his neck and he growled at her, baring his teeth. “Charmed or not, My Lady. You should not let monstrosities get so close to you.”

  “Yes… Anyway, it’s all kobolds, so this should be easy. But if I help…”

  A firm “No” came from all sides. Even Polly snorted and shook his head.