Desert Dungeon

First Floor

Two Shards Active

A dry wind hit Owin as soon as he emerged. Shade was already crouched a few feet from the door with his hand shoved into some sand on the edge of the platform. The skeleton lifted a handful, though much of it ran between his fingers.

The void nexus led to a wide stone platform that sat atop the ground. Some sand and old plant debris had gathered on the edges of the platform with a light dusting of dirt or sand across that crunched under Owin's chitin boots.

Chorsay emerged a moment later and took a deep breath. "I missed this place."

The ground was less sandy than Owin had been expecting compared to the land outside the dungeon. There was green, it was just less vibrant than the plants in the Great Forest. Cacti stood tall among wispy shrubs and a few thin trees.

He could already see the first mob, which looked like a big spider but with a tail.

"A scorpion," Chorsay said, apparently guessing as to what Owin was staring at.

"What's it do?"

"Poison," Shade said. He curved his arm up, dropping the sand he had managed to pick up. He mimicked the tail stabbing. "If that stinger gets you, you're dead."

"Not true," Chorsay said. "On the first floor, it will be a poison level of one."

"There are poison levels?"

"For poison mobs, yes. You will see a few different ones in the Desert. There are many more in the Great Forest." He stopped and scratched his cheek, digging under the beard. "Above where you were."

"Oh." Owin had immediately imagined a poison hobgoblin and had trouble. "Are there poison goblins?"

"No. They could have a poisoned weapon, I suppose. Poisoned weapons don't use poison levels." Chorsay pulled Shade to his feet. "There is a boss scorpion farther ahead, over the hill. Let us battle these weaker ones for you to get a feel of their movements and your own increased attributes."

Owin stomped his feet as they walked off the platform and onto the dry ground. He wanted a good feeling for movement before fighting something that could poison him. Memories of the battle against Amkati at the beginning of the Ocean haunted him. He had nearly been beaten by a little wandering boss, and one that was just supposed to be a fisherman.

Now that he thought about it, he realized a water elf with a fishing pole was more concerning after learning about the tension between the girhuma and cetanthro. Owin laughed a little, thinking back to the mostly fun adventure with Katalin and Ernie. Fun if he didn't think about the Void Nexus heroes trying to kill him and the swarm that almost got Ernie killed.

Desert Mob

Scorpion

Level 6

"A level six when I'm this strong can't really be that scary even if it's three times stronger than normal. Right?" Owin asked.

"Do you remember what you said to me a few months ago?"

"Hm." Owin looked up at the old man. "No. I've said a lot."

"And I've said even more," Shade said, casually strolling right up the scorpion.

"You told me that a cocky hero is a dead hero. I'm glad you have confidence in your abilities. That doesn't mean you can go into fights without using your head. I know there have been plenty of jokes about your intelligence before. It doesn't matter that it's higher than before. Ignore the number. Use what you know."

Owin nodded. Chorsay was right. Owin had beat plenty of heroes who thought it was going to be an easy fight. The number of shards and attribute scores weren't the only things that decided fights.

The scorpion moved much faster than Owin would've guessed. It launched forward, skittering over the dry ground, and shot its tail overhead.

Shade moved fast and leaned to the side, letting the stinger pass right beside his arm. "I made it angry!"

Summon the Withered Shade

Summon the Withered Shade

Chorsay immediately grabbed Shade's shoulders. "We are letting Owin fight this one."

"What about you?" Shade asked. "Don't you need to warm up a bit? Are you rusty?"

Chorsay huffed but said nothing.

The scorpion calmed after pushing Shade's dust aside with its spindly legs. It walked back up the small hill it had been standing on, rotated once, and stopped beside a small tree and a few dry shrubs.

"Do you think I should let it come to me?" Owin asked as he reached his hand toward the mouth of the black specter bag and thought about the Incandescent Blade. His palm immediately brushed the pommel. He pulled the sword free, surprised to see there was no sheath, meaning the bag decided to give him just the weapon.

"Urp."

Owin stopped. The sound had happened as soon as the tip of the blade slipped free of the bag. He looked back and saw two faces as confused as his own. "You heard that?"

"Did you burp?" Shade asked.

"No. I think it was my bag."

"Bags don't burp," Shade said.

"And skeletons don't walk around and talk about penises." Owin tapped the bag. "Hello?"

"I wouldn't worry about it for now," Chorsay said. "Things Althowin makes have a way of being different than you might expect."

"I feel like I should be concerned about that statement," Shade said. He tried to walk, but couldn't move under Chorsay's grip.

"Why? Althowin didn't make you."

"No, my mother did, but you never know what the old fox might give us that will come alive and eat me or something. Imagine if she makes you a hat and it ends up eating your brain." Shade shook his head dramatically. "We don't want that. We don't want a headless Owin, do we?"

"We do not," Chorsay said.

"Are you saying not to trust Althowin?" Owin asked. He took a few slow steps backward, heading toward the mob.

"I believe skepticism is a healthy mindset for everyone, especially when interacting with those in power." Chorsay let Shade go, but the skeleton didn't go anywhere. "I trust her more after seeing the way she reacted to the battle in Atrevaar. She gave me the time and privacy I needed to speak with Veph. As powerful as she is, Althowin is still human and humans are complicated."

Owin frowned.

"As are you."

Owin nodded and turned around. Almost without thinking, he ignited the Incandescent Blade. It was so easy to wield the fiery sword with how much mana he had available. And holding the sword brought some comfort in the familiarity that he hadn't realized he was missing after the battle against Nikoletta.

He was back in a dungeon with a boundary wall glimmering beneath the cloudless blue sky. He was back where he belonged. It felt like home in a way. More than anywhere else had.

The scorpion charged.

Owin shifted his feet. No scorpion was going to be faster than Zezog.

Its tail lashed out, stinger aiming for Owin's face. In one swift motion, he slashed the end of the tail off, stepped through, and brought the sword back up, cutting the scorpion's head in half. The body fell limp to the hard ground.

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0 Experience

"Perfectly executed," Chorsay said. "That stance, was it a Stelsodo martial art?"

Owin slowly slipped the sword back into the bag, almost flinching as he expected a burp. Instead, the bag made a sound almost like a moan, though it was so quiet that Shade couldn't hear.

"You heard that, right?"

Chorsay nodded slowly. "Don't worry about the bag."

Shade shifted his own feet into the same stance Owin had taken during the brief fight. "Is this Stelsodo . . . ian?"

"That stance looks like a dexterity-focused martial art that originated in the southern end of Stelsodo. An old master had shown me some basics a long time ago." Chorsay smiled. "Suta."

Owin lifted the scorpion corpse and found a single coin. He dropped it into his bag and frowned when it made another little squeak. "Suta showed us a lot. He never said it was a dexterity fighting style."

"A wizard learning dexterity martial arts is unusual. If you were anyone else, I'd question it." Chorsay pulled the Winged Sword from its sheath and carefully removed chitin from the scorpion's body. "This can be used like your armor."

"Is there a scorpion chitin set in the Desert?" Owin asked. He thought about a tail and stinger rising from his back instead of crab legs and claws.

"There is. I've never seen more than a piece." The old man stuck the chitin in his bag. "Let me fight the next scorpion we come across." He grunted as he stood. "I need to loosen up."

"Why do you have a dagger?" Shade asked. He narrowed his eye sockets, looking at the knife on Chorsay's hip.

"Alright." Chorsay opened his index, turned away from the skeleton, and pointed ahead with the sword. "Straight this way we should find a chest. It won't have much." Before Owin or Shade could say anything, he set off.

"Wouldn't it not having much mean we don't need to bother?" Shade asked.

"What?"

"I don't know. I confused myself with those words. Hey, that knife—"

"It's fine," Owin said. "Chorsay's had it for a long time." Owin shook the corpse one more time then jogged to catch up with Chorsay. It hardly took any time to run over the rough, dry ground.

Chorsay had stopped not far ahead. He held a limb of a spiny cactus and didn't seem to realize the sharp spikes were resting against his skin. "Did you know liquor can be made from cactus? They have it in Prouvaria, I think. Probably near the Desert."

"We can try some on the way back."

Chorsay moved his hand away from the cactus. "We just might. Maybe fusion will change our tastebuds."

"Hey, that knife," Shade said. The skeleton wasn't subtle as he walked beside Chorsay and continually gestured to the weapon. "Can I see it?"

"Why?" Owin asked.

"I just, uh, hmm."

Chorsay raised an eyebrow.

"I have a lot of questions and I can't really ask them in a coherent or reasonable way." Shade waved a hand dismissively. "Never the mind. Ignore me. Thoughts are getting all jumbled up without a jelly pudding to live inside."

"Don't people just say never mind?" Owin asked.

As they crested a hill, the rest of the first floor stretched before them. Far in the right corner were ruins half-buried in sands and rocks, and overgrown with wispy shrubs and cacti.

A group of smaller scorpions roamed close, just at the bottom of the hill. Some smaller worm-like creatures popped out of the ground on the opposite side, and standing guard in front of the ruins was a purple-colored scorpion at least twice the size of the one Owin had fought earlier.

"What is a jelly pudding?" Chorsay asked.

Shade broke into a monologue about the intricacies of jelly pudding. Owin, despite actually listening, understood none of it. Without having seen the shapeless specters in the past, he wouldn't have had the slightest idea what jelly was. Pudding was a complete mystery, but it seemed like Chorsay knew.

"Let me handle this," Chorsay said once the discussion about pudding died down.

Shade took a few steps closer to Owin and crouched on the hilltop. "What do you think he's going to do?"

"Kill the scorpions, Shade."

Chorsay marched directly into the middle of the scorpions. All four mobs spotted him and lurched at once. The huge soldier planted his feet and lifted the Winged Sword of the Swift Behemoth.

For the briefest moment, Owin's heart froze. Chorsay wasn't Artivan. He didn't even look like Artivan. But they wielded the same sword, and seeing it used again after so long made Owin's mind race.

Bags of bricks swung wildly as Chorsay took a step, planting his foot in the dry ground, and swung the Winged Sword. Even without activating the sword's ability, it easily chopped through each of the scorpions in a single wide arc. The old man stood and watched for a moment before he cleaned his sword, sheathed it, and walked back.

"Not quite the warmup I had been expecting."

"I'm also that strong," Shade said.

Chorsay reached out and pinched the skeleton's arm between his forefinger and thumb. "Your muscles impress me."

Shade nodded vigorously. "A big strong boy. I know."

"Do you need to fight more?" Owin walked up to the old man. "Will you level up if you keep fighting? What do you want me to do?"

"Owin." Chorsay crouched again, wincing a little at the action. "Do you think I created the Hogs because I was bored?"

"No."

"Do you think I did it to surround myself with big strong boys like Shade to keep me safe?"

Owin looked at the skeleton who was nodding enthusiastically. "No."

Chorsay grabbed his shoulder in a warm, calloused hand. "I know you worry. You spent your journey in the Great Forest worrying about Artivan, and the Ocean helping Suta." He squeezed gently. "I can handle myself. I'm here because I want to be."

Owin nodded once. He could agree outwardly while not agreeing inside. People did it all the time. It was the same as his time in the Ocean. Myrsvai struggled severely at the start after not having been in a dungeon in so long, and he refused help when he needed it.

Owin had more recent experience than they did, even if Chorsay had more overall.

"It sounds like I'm fighting that purple boss over there, which I think is fine, really. The color purple really makes me angry." Shade made a noise akin to a growl, but a lot less terrifying. "Just so angry."

"Is this a joke about my hair?" Owin reached for the mouth of the bag and pulled out Isotelus. The bag burped again as the last of the limp sword pulled free. Owin frowned and passed the sword to Shade.

"What else would I joke about? Your bag with indigestion? Not much of a joke there, if you ask me." Shade held the sword out and activated Shuriken. Spinning sections of the spine split off and floated in an orbit around Shade as he skipped joyfully toward the massive scorpion.

"I may have underestimated him," Chorsay admitted. He stood, wincing as his knees straightened, and followed Shade over a small mound. "I didn't think he fought on his own."

"He didn't originally. Sometimes he has a class that does well."

"AH!" Shade flashed red.

"He's a berserker?" Chorsay asked, laughing.

The shurikens flew forward and tore into the scorpion's chitin. Some managed to cut deep, while others bounced off and fell to the ground. The scorpion boss fully turned to Shade and charged. As soon as it was within range, it launched its stinger forward. With the shard boost, that attack was almost impossible to follow.

And apparently, it was for Shade. The skeleton didn't move as the stringer went right into his eye socket. He stumbled back from the impact and summoned the sections of Isotelus back to himself. The spine snapped into a straight line as ice formed between the vertebrae. As it was still freezing, Shade chopped in front of him and cut right through the scorpion's tail.

"That's all I'm doing," Shade said.

The scorpion reached forward with a claw and snapped it on Shade's waist. Owin had already launched himself forward. He pulled the Incandescent Blade from the specter bag while in the air, doing his best to ignore the moan it made while extruding the sword.

Owin flipped in midair, igniting the blade, and chopped with his strength multiplied by two. What would have been impossible for him a few months ago was now effortless. He landed on his feet, sending dirt and sand around him. The massive purple scorpion tried to turn, then twitched and fell in two.

"Here's the thing," Shade said. "That was a great move and all, really worth the praise, but I really just can't ignore your bag moaning as you flew over my head."

Owin was already frowning as he tried to imagine putting the swords back inside. "Maybe we just keep our weapons for now?"

"Oh, no. Not fair. I don't want to carry things because you're scared of pleasuring that bag of yours." Shade held out Isotelus. "I have a little treat for it."

"Stop."

"I do wonder," Chorsay said as he neared. His own sword was already sheathed at his side. Despite all the weight, his steps were gentle and quieter than Owin would've expected, but the man still clanked like an approaching golem. "What was it Althowin said about the bag?"

"She said that it was still growing and will finish its final form sometime in the future. I don't know what that means. She said it would look the same, but . . ." Owin reluctantly put Isotelus inside.

There was no noise.

"That's just good comedic timing," Shade said. "You know, despite what I've said, I think I quickly changed my mind. I don't like your bag anymore."

"I don't think you said you did like it."

Shade put his arm over Owin's shoulder. "Good. I don't anymore because it has a brain and I don't, and I really don't see how that's fair."

"My bag is smarter than you?"

Chorsay chuckled softly and walked by. "Come on, kids. Let's get to the next floor."

He led them into the ruined building, which was covered in green, leafy plants and loose, scattered bricks. It looked like it had once held places to sit and altars to the gods, or a god.

"Who made the Desert?"

"Nehadya." Chorsay bowed his head. "She's a kind deity, from what I've heard."

Owin looked up and half expected some comment from the god, but his mind was silent.

The upper part of the ruins was clear of mobs, and Chorsay led them down the stairs into a dark basement. Sand cascaded in through small holes in the recesses where roots of the withered plants had grown between bricks.

The hall narrowed to the point where Chorsay would have to step through sideways.

"Want me to go first? I can fit through that." Owin took a step forward.

Chorsay extended a hand low, halting their advance. "This is a trap and I don't see the mana battery."

Owin leaned on one foot to look through the opening. There was no sign it was a trap. The room beyond widened before narrowing again after about fifty feet.

"We can send Shade in."

"Oh, yes!" Shade walked up and leaned on Owin. "Use me as bait. I love it. After I got more competent, he hasn't been tossing me in the old meat grinder anymore. Probably too many bones, you know?"

"Go ahead," Chorsay said as he stepped aside.

"Is it just to shut me up? It's probably to shut me up." Shade stepped inside and turned back to them. "Seems fi—"

Both side walls moved in at alarming speeds and smashed together, pulverizing Shade into dust.

"I have a cooldown, so it'll be two minutes before I can bring him back."

"Those walls moved faster than I expected." Chorsay squinted. "The next room looks the same. We will need to be careful."

"I'm faster, so I'll go first and find the battery to turn it all off." He shuffled over to stand directly in front of the opening.

"Owin."

"No," Owin said. "No worrying or saying I don't have to. I can manage this easily. I've done it before, and I'll do it again."

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