With the concept of an idea of a plan in place, and with no time to lose, the larger group continued through the now deserted outpost. Parts of it still smoldered, and several houses were nothing but rubble. The emptiness was a little eerie, and the dark windows gaping open made Luke look over his shoulder more than once. Every little patch of darkness or shadow set him on edge, and he was glad they were hurrying through like they were being chased by rampaging beasts.

  The group was almost twenty people strong, everyone counted, and each of them carried at least one gem out in the open, many of them coming from Luke's inventory. In the far distance, by the cavern walls, red glowing eyes tracked them, but no dwarves approached. Still, it made them hurry their steps even more. No one wanted a confrontation with the inhabitants of the cave system again. That would take time they didn't have. Also, Luke wanted to be done with all this. In his honest and unapologetic opinion, they'd all been in this dungeon for far too long. The drawn-out tunnels, the outpost, defenders, dwarves, dragon, Deep Dweller, strange doors into fields of grass. It was all too much.

  If they needed to kill or chase off some off-brand eldritch horror to get out, he'd kick its ass, all so he could lie down and rest.

  The damn thing waited for them, just taking it easy right in front of the portal. When it'd been far up on the wall, it'd been difficult to get a good grasp of its size. Now, though, when it was down on the ground and exposed, Luke didn't have trouble gauging the enormity of the monster. Its bulk eclipsed the portal and stretched far to each side, to where it almost reached the sides of the massive cavern. If he had to put it in perspective, he'd guess it was about three times the size of the dragon, and that was saying something.

  Though huge, it was not the monster's size that made Luke most uncomfortable. The Deep Dweller exuded malice and dread in waves coming off it, almost as if it was forcing everyone around it to feel a certain way. Unsure if it was a skill or not, Luke did his best to suppress the feelings.

  "Ready?" he asked Delilah.

  Her eyes were wide open and unblinking as she stared at the monster.

  "Delilah," Luke hissed.

  She blinked, turning to him. "What?"

  "Are you ready?"

  "Do you really think I should cast a spell at that thing? It'll eat me alive."

  Luke scoffed. "You'll burn it away unless it runs. We better hurry."

  She gave him a weak smile.

  "How long do you need to cast it?" he asked.

  "Ten seconds should be enough."

  He nodded and gave her his most encouraging smile. "And can you cast it while you walk?"

  "No."

  "That's fine," he said. "I'll be right behind you. We'll walk forward, and when I squeeze your shoulder, you cast the spell."

  "And give me mana."

  "You'll have all the mana you need," Luke promised.

  The Deep Dweller just sat there watching them as the group of Integrated walked closer. Watch might be the wrong word, because it didn't have eyes, or any other features for that matter, but it watched them nonetheless. Luke could feel its attention on them, putting everyone on edge.

  "Steady," Nymh said.

  Each step brought them a little closer to the thing that might spell their end if this plan didn't work. It had to work, and Luke would see that it did. Just as he was about to have Delilah stop and cast the spell, they were perhaps 300 feet from the creature, the Deep Dweller twitched. From that distance, it was difficult to see what it was up to, but it wasn't coming any closer. Then, movement.

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  System Message: Dungeon closing in 10 minutes.

  Luke narrowed his eyes, not sure at first what he was seeing. Then, when he saw what was coming toward them at high speed, he swallowed hard. It was a person. Sort of. Reaching across the still rather far distance between the group and the monster, it stretched a tentacle of shadows all the way to them. It stopped right in front of the group, showing a man. The Deep Dweller's tentacle wriggled and writhed, coming out through the front of the dead man's chest. It had pierced all the way through, and the man's head hung limp, his skin pale. Dead.

  Surprise, fear, and disgust ran through the group in equal measure when the dead person's head moved. Two pools of darkness stared at them, and when the dead man opened his mouth to speak, that same darkness filled his mouth and throat. A vessel for the Deep Dweller. That was all this man was, all he'd been reduced to.

  "Where is the girl with the shadows?" the man hissed. "Where is my daughter?"

  Luke frowned, not understanding what the hell the creep was babbling about, but then he understood.

  "She's not here," Luke said, getting the words out in a hurry. They didn't have time for this. "Hannah has left the dungeon."

  "Hannah..."

  Nymh stepped up in front of the group, stood with her feet set wide apart and her arms crossed over her chest, straightening her back. "What do you want?"

  "Want?" the Deep Dweller asked. "You were sent into my domain. Offerings, are you not? Amusement. Yet a rare treasure appeared among you, gray little creatures. One of my lineage. Bring me... Hannah."

  "No," Luke said, glaring at the pools of darkness that were its eyes.

  "Is there anything else you want?" Nymh asked, raising her voice. "There must be a deal we can make that will satisfy all parties."

  System Message: Dungeon closing in 9 minutes.

  The tentacle wriggled, and the dead man's head tilted forward before righting itself again. Luke got the sense that it was amused at Nymh's attempt to broker peace.

  "If you will not bring me what is mine, I shall have the stone so I can go claim her myself. Perhaps my time of isolation has come to an end."

  Penny leaned forward over Luke's shoulder to whisper. "Does it not know about the portal and how it works? Couldn't it just, you know, leave?"

  Luke turned to whisper back. "Don't know. I have no clue how the portals work. Seems like some monsters can leave, like with the pink dungeon, and others can't. I don't get it."

  Nymh gave them both an annoyed glare before addressing the creature in front of them. "What stone is it that you speak of?"

  "You have been referring to this object as the gem. Provide me with this, and I shall grant you safe passage."

  Luke and a few others had the foresight to keep gems in their inventories as well, allowing them to talk without being listened in on.

  Nymh: "It wants The Gem of Communication."

  Luke: "It's not getting it."

  Nymh: "Perhaps it's worth losing the gem if it means getting out of here."

  Luke: "We already have a plan. It will work. There is a reason this particular portal opened up. We need the gem. Communication between us and those outside is too valuable to give up."

  Curtis: "He's right."

  Luke: "Thank you, Curtis."

  Curtis: "Shut up."

  Penny: "We have a bunch of gems. Maybe it's worth considering."

  Mateo: "This beast makes a mockery of us. It needs to taste defeat."

  The crowd of Integrated muttered and spoke in hushed whispers, throwing the occasional glance Luke's way. They all knew he carried the gem at this point. He glared back at each of them, daring them to try something. The gem would be important going forward. This wasn't just stubborn greed on his part, either. He was even planning on finding a way everyone could share the gem and its properties. At this point, he was also all but certain the portals and their destinations weren't random chance. Guide, or maybe someone else, was choosing these places. Humanity needed a way to communicate with those inside dungeons, and then this dungeon appeared? Not a chance that was a fluke.

  Also, from what he'd read of other cities, most didn't encounter dungeons half as difficult as the ones that'd opened up in Chicago. Luke had formed a theory about that. What if the better you performed, the more difficult dungeons appeared? It would be a way to make Integrated grow at a quicker rate. No, this wasn't random. Not the dungeons and not the gem.

  "The gem stays with us," Luke said, raising his voice so it carried across the crowd of bickering Integrated and to the Deep Dweller.

  "So be it. Once you are part of me, so is the ownership of the objects in your possession," the dead man's voice rasped.

  The tentacle withdrew without another word.

  System Message: Dungeon closing in 8 minutes.

  "Nice going, asshole!" a bearded man shouted, giving Luke the finger.

  "Yeah!" some other jerk added. "Now we're all dead! We've got eight minutes!"

  "Because of you!" a third said. This time it was a woman in her fifties. "I have children, you know!"

  Delilah glared up at Luke.

  "What?" he asked her.

  "Are we doing this or what?" she asked.

  "Hell yeah, we are," Luke said, ignoring the jeers from everyone else.

  Luke: "Nymh, we're starting now. Get ready!"