I wish I had cleaned up better before my nap because my eyes were swollen and grainy. The blue blood of the Tuli Monster had definitely dyed my skin, and although the blue splashed across my chest looked pretty cool, my bright purple nipples left a bit to be desired.

  It was immediately apparent what had woken me. Ash was digging with a shell he'd scavenged. The hole wasn't big yet, but the scrape of shell on wet sand was unmistakable.

  I sat up, reaching for my pack. It was time for some of Tandy's Dry Granola ?.

  "Tandy, can't you—" My banter broke off as I realized my friend wasn't going to respond. Can't you learn another recipe? She'd smile at the comment and toss back, if you want something different, learn to make it yourself.

  I took out the small sack of granola that I had tucked in my bag. Opening the drawstring, I started crunching through breakfast, not caring if the noise woke the two remaining sleepers. Instead, I watched Ash, who gave me a head bob. We'd worked out on the road that his peppering me with questions first thing in the morning was not good for our long-term friendship prospects, so he waited at least twenty minutes unless there was an emergency.

  Meredeath looked better. She sat with her blanket wrapped around her shoulders, munching cereal she'd bought in the last town. Her hair was tousled in a beachy bedhead that gave her goth aesthetic a goofy counterpoint. It was a good look for her.

  "What are you looking at?" She frowned at me. A month ago, I would probably be scared to respond and would have avoided the question. Not anymore.

  "I'm looking at the beautiful [Death Knight] that saved our butts yesterday!" I grinned at her as I spoke, trying to take on a bit of Leo's dashing charm.

  Meredeath gave me an up and down, her own lips turning into a smile.

  "A bit early to flirt, isn't it, farm boy?" She threw some of the crunchy wheat cereal in her mouth, and I braced for whatever she was going to say next. "Might want to throw on a shirt and block your purple headlights first."

  Touché. My ears burning, I dug through my pack to confirm what I already knew. I was out of shirts.

  "Sorry, Meredeath, this is just what you get now. I'm out of shirts and without T—" The words caught in my throat. Without Tandy, we can't resize anyone's shirt to fit. My gritty eyes chose that moment to tear up, and agitate as I rubbed at them. Were we ever going to get rid of the sand?

  Meredeath had looked away at my unsaid thought, returning to staring off into the view of the abyss. She was losing herself in her own emotional downturn. We had neither Leo nor Tandy to pull us out of our spirals. I took a couple of deep breaths, feeling the sand between my toes, the salty burn in my eyes, and the sandpapery grit of my pants. I was here; I had Meredeath, Ash, and Richard, and we'd find Tandy.

  And Leo.

  Standing up, I looked at Richard. He was still curled up in hibernative sleep. It was time for answers. I poked at the slug.

  Go away, I'm sleeping.

  He looked healthy enough, so I poked him again.

  "Wake up, Richard. You're not dying. It's time to get up."

  An eyestalk shifted, wobbling as though the eyeball carried the weight of the world. It drifted up, blinking sleepily to look at me. I wouldn't call this living either.

  "The sooner we figure out how to get out of this dungeon, the sooner you can sunbathe. I just want to get back to civilization." And find Tandy. He must have heard my unspoken words, because the slug did start moving. The second eyestalk came out with a yawn as Richard smacked his lips. He slimed his way towards my pack looking for the stack of dried leaves I'd packed for his meals.

  I reached in and carefully unwrapped the leaves. Surprising considering all the dousing our gear had taken, it hadn't molded. I held out a twig covered in small, silvery leaves.

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  Is that all you've got? The ungrateful slug complained.

  "For you, yes. Be grateful I picked some foliage for you before we left." Briefly, I wondered why he didn't use his dimensional storage to pack his own lunch. With a flick of my hand, I tossed the leafy twig at him.

  I'd be grateful if you hadn't picked sage. The stuff gives me indigestion. He started munching on the vegetation, anyway. Besides, if you had brought nothing I'd be eating granola right now. He eyed the bag in my hands as I tossed another handful into my mouth. A hard piece caught on a tooth, causing me to wince.

  "You can't tell me that'd be an upgrade," I choked, spitting out an inedible bit of husk from a nut.

  Richard refrained from commenting, but I will say he stuck to his sage, indigestion or not.

  “If you two are done squabbling like two old hens, can someone tell me how we’re going to escape this dungeon?” Meredeath asked her question loud enough to wake up Leyla and Argin. The two girls were looking much more bedraggled than Meredeath. With hair in knots, stained dresses, they looked hungry.

  I reached for Tandy's pack and pulled out her personal stash of granola, tossing the sack to the two girls.

  Ash was still scooping sand like he was on a mission, but he shrugged at the question.

  We all stared at Richard, the obvious choice.

  The slug had been staring off into space, but as the silence stretched, his eyestalks came into focus.

  Who me? Both stalks moved with exaggerated slowness as he focused on me. Cole's the one with the [Dungeon Delver] skill. Have you tried using it yet?

  I hadn't. I hadn't even been checking the map. Closing my eyes, I just let the shame settle on my face. This was my third dungeon, so I should have been a little better at this by now.

  I could almost feel Andrew’s firm hand on my shoulder as he lectured me about how Eddie’s Mill wasn’t built in a day. I was still new to this.

  I triggered [Dungeon Delver] and looked at the dungeon map that populated in my interface.

  Sure enough, emblazoned with a bright star was a clearly marked exit south from our position. It was hard to tell exactly how far, as there wasn’t a scale provided. At least we had a direction.

  "Okay, so it looks like it's that way." I pointed towards the floating body of the Mosas. It was jerking in different directions as tiny fish tugged at its flesh. They were having the feast to end all feasts.

  "In the Mosas?" Meredeath sounded incredulous. We'd already fought our way through a fatberg and the intestines of a leviathan, so a portal in the colon of the Mosas didn't seem that out of place to me. Sadly, however, it was going to be much harder than that.

  "No, it seems further away." The map was mostly blue with a tiny speck of brown and green, almost like an island. "In fact, I'd say it's much, much worse than being in the Mosas's ass. It looks like it's on an island that appears." I paused watching the spot on my interface waiting for the confirmation. The image of the portal shifted slightly away from our position. "To be moving."

  I closed out the map, looking at my companions. The enclosure had shrunk noticeably while we'd slept, and survival was looking dim. Internally, I cursed Richard for upping the difficulty level of the dungeon. If we'd been at the [Advanced] level, the exit point probably would have spawned in our enclosure.

  The dull scrape of shell on sand interrupted my thoughts.

  "Ash, what are you doing?" I couldn't keep the irritation out of my voice. I was tired.

  "Digging," he explained oh so helpfully.

  I shared a look with Meredeath, who prodded our nerdy mechanic further.

  "Yes, but why are you digging a trench at the bottom of the ocean?" Ash stopped scrapping the sand for one blessedly long moment as he formulated a reply.

  "I'm hoping to find something useful. I've already dug up a couple of bones." He tossed what appeared to be a handful of chicken bones onto the surface. Meredeath frowned, walking over to examine the bones.

  "So, nothing useful so far?" I asked.

  "Not yet, but I was thinking about the dungeon's name, [Below, as Above]. Figured it couldn't hurt to dig. Maybe there's something below ground." The dull scrape of shell on sand had resumed. I couldn't fault the guy for trying. Argin must have thought he was on to something, as she examined a couple of pieces of shells as though trying to find her own digging implement.

  None of them had gills, so what they could do was pretty limited.

  "I guess I'll go for a swim, check out how far our mobile island is from here."

  "Sure." Meredeath didn't look up from her chicken bones as she spoke. "If nothing else, at least you and Richard will get out of here."

  [Heart] had triggered, twisting the genuine hope for my survival like a knife in my chest. No part of me wanted to survive this dungeon if it meant leaving everyone in a watery grave.

  "Let me check out the surface at least. If we can get you all to breathable air, then we just need to swim to the island." Even as I said the words, I knew it was going to be harder than that.

  Unfortunately, for once in my life, I was dead right.

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