The hardwood planks continued down, dead kerosene lamps lining the path. The planks below her creaked under her steps. Few weeds attempted to grow from the stone ground. None flourished. The creepy tunnel resembled the free dungeon with its subtle yet constant hostility in the air.

In the free dungeon, the hostile air came from nimrods watching Vivi. Most demons didn’t care to hide their stares. Here, however, Vivi wasn’t certain where the feeling came from. Her every step was heavy and hesitant despite nothing staring at her neck.

Lucius? Vivi asked. Is everything normal? I feel like we’re stepping into danger.

“There’s just more ether here,” Lucius said. “Your perception has grown. You’re starting to sense ether in your surroundings. New hunters usually identify ether as an uncomfortable presence that they want to go away. The feeling will grow calmer as you get used to it. Slowly, your sixth sense will turn from scary to useful.”

I didn’t feel this way in the fangling lair, or when I looked down into the brick stairway, Vivi thought. Something is wrong here. It feels like something is watching us. Waiting for us to arrive.

“Eh,” Lucius said. “I wouldn’t worry. We’ll approach with caution, as we always do. I expect tougher monsters. But nothing more than that.”

If you say so… Vivi thought. Lucius was the more experienced hunter. He was more familiar with feeling ether. Still, Vivi couldn’t shrug off the feeling. Something was

wrong here.

The tunnel ended ahead, though no light came in from the opening. Vivi peeked into the next tall-roofed cavern. The wooden planks separated, leading to different tunnels. Columns of thick natural stone spread randomly throughout the space. Most reached from ground to the ceiling, but a lot of columns had been snapped in half, hanging from the ceiling. Fallen pebbles cluttered the ground.

Parts of the walls were reflective and shiny. She noticed a subtle purple glow. Vivi squinted at the spot. Was that metal?

Vivi had worked with metal for fifteen years, but she wasn’t a miner or a geologist. Grandpa had always provided the tools and resources for her to practice with. She had never seen ores in the wild. Gathering metals wasn’t what she was good at.

The purple spot, however, looked like venerium, a rare metal with interesting properties. The metal was venomous. Just touching it would cause skin to grow rashes. Drawing blood with a venerium sword, even without runic properties, could cause a human to lose their strength. In some cases, venerium was known to kill.

Vivi had never worked with the metal for obvious reasons. Only a special kind of weirdo would want to buy a venomous sword. Working with the metal was supposedly a nightmare, requiring special equipment that Grandpa didn’t have. On top of this, the metal was rare, and as a result, expensive.

Venerium probably wouldn’t be useful in Zand either. Vivi would have much rather found a rare ether root. The metal was an interesting find nonetheless. More common metals were spread across the walls as well. Some parts of the walls had holes and indents. Had some metals been gathered already?

“Vivi, watch out!” Lucius suddenly called.

Vivi flinched as she sensed the object flying toward her. It was a small nail, like the spike of a hedgehog. The tip missed her head by an inch.

The attacker charged at her from the end of the leftmost wooden path. It was a humanoid figure with a large and hunched neck. Spikes lined its mane all the way to its back. It wielded two rusted hatchets coated in misty ether.

The rusty weapons left a trail of ether, passing in a flash as the monster pounced for Vivi. She summoned her sword and blocked with panicked instincts. Blades connected, and a jolt shot through her body.

“A gnoll!” Lucius shouted. The panicked tone of his voice conveyed everything Vivi needed to know. Lucius pushed insane amounts of ether into her body. Strength surged through, improving her senses.

Even with improved senses, Vivi couldn’t keep up. The gnoll’s attacks were rampant and bloodthirsty, attacking her at full force. Its rusted hatchets were hard to make out; Vivi held out her sword and defended. She was being pushed back.

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After the fifth attack, her panic strategy failed. One of the hatchets found an opening, slipping past her sword, about to cut open her shoulder.

Lucius flew from her core with a grimace, slashing at the hatchet. His claws collided, and he was blown back. He crashed against the wall twenty feet behind.

But he managed to knock the gnoll’s attack off path. The monster’s footing was loose.

Vivi yelled out and swung. She didn’t see what she was aiming at. The fight moved too fast for her to follow. Any hope of using strategies was useless; even thinking took too much time. Vivi could only attack as hard and fast as her practice so far allowed.

By miracle, her attack landed. Her runesword sword cut into the gnoll’s left shoulder. She ripped through in one hit, cutting the monster cleanly in half.

The gnoll collapsed. Its skin disintegrated to ether. Its host bones clanked on the ground along with the spikes on the monster’s back. Ether sizzled from the corpse.

Lucius flew back in a hurry, collecting the ether. The gnoll was worth over a hundred.

But Vivi knew the fight wasn’t over. The ravenous feeling in the air had only worsened as the fight went on. More monsters were approaching. She didn’t know from where, but she knew she was in danger.

Lucius, we need to get out, Vivi said. This area is too risky.

“Agreed,” Lucius said. “Gnolls are too fast, and they have enough power to stop me from blocking their attacks. Your runesword has a lot of firepower. Anything it hits will most likely die, but not if the opponents don’t let us land a hit. The gnolls are a bad match. We need to—”

Lucius paused. Then he shouted, “Behind you!”

Vivi glanced over her shoulder in the direction she’d come. Four pairs of dark ethereal eyes stared at her. There were four gnolls, all as powerful as the one Vivi had just dueled. Two wielded hatchets while the others had ethereal crossbows.

Vivi’s face went pale. The gnolls approached slowly, as if trying to corner her. The way back up was blocked.

Four gnolls. Vivi almost lost to one. She stood no chance.

In a split-second decision, Vivi bolted deeper into the dungeon. The rightmost path was nearest, and it was unoccupied. She couldn’t see anything but darkness in the path below. She could very well be running deeper into danger.

Unknown darkness was far better than the monsters behind. She kept running.

Piercing pain shot through her body from her back. The gnolls were shooting more spikes. One landed on her upper back, piercing into her skin. More spikes followed. Lucius tried blocking them, hitting a few with his claws, but the spikes pierced right through his spirit-body.

She continued running deeper into the dark tunnel. As the path twisted, the attacks from behind stopped momentarily, but the gnolls were still chasing. So far, the tunnel ahead was empty, thank the gods.

Why are they so strong! Vivi shouted in her head. They’re faster than Serena!

“Just run!” Lucius said. “Talk later. Let’s try to find a crawl space or a safe spot.”

Vivi gritted her teeth. Her back was stinging from the spikes. Ether kept her running, but she knew she’d been hit badly. She stored her sword to run faster.

She watched the walls for crawl spaces. There were none. She cursed in her head. Exits had always been abundant in all parts of the dungeon—except when she truly needed one.

Erratic footsteps resounded behind her. The gnolls didn’t run at a steady pace; they launched themselves forward with force. Vivi sped up. Her lungs were dying. With each step, her back screamed, piercing pain shooting through her body.

“Vivi…” Lucius said, sounding concerned. “Something is ahead. Something large. I feel a lot of ether.”

Vivi was biting her lip to the point of bleeding. Of course there was something ahead. More monsters that wanted to kill her.

There wasn’t time to consider whether running ahead was a good idea. Vivi could only hope whatever was ahead was less dangerous than the gnolls behind. She ran and ran, using every bit of power her body had.

The tunnel ended. A blue glow radiated from the opening. Vivi could vaguely sense ether. The feeling was grand and transcendental, the opposite of the murderous horror behind her. She ran into the next room.

The sight of two colossal columns immediately made her pause. The chamber was enormous, ceiling close to a hundred feet high. A wide brick path led to a structure at the far wall of the chamber. A blue glow radiated between each brick on the path. It was the exact same blue glow as on the stairway down to the main dungeon.

The structure at the back looked like an entrance to an ancient palace, though the doors were blocked by the cavern’s back wall. The arches and columns were built into the back, columns poking halfway out. The structure seemed to be only for decoration. A stairway led to arched doorways.

As Vivi stepped in, the blue glow grew into a darker shade, as if the dungeon had sensed an invader. The amount of ether in the air was insane. The walls themselves felt alive. Behind her, a slab slammed shut on the doorway, locking her into the arena.

Vivi called her sword and glanced around herself. Nothing seemed to be attacking her yet. The arena was devoid of monsters.

Then she looked up.

The ceiling crumbled as the bones of a giant flying skeleton were awoken from slumber.

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