Lacie: Are you alright? I thought you said you were coming back.

  I was sitting in a damp spot on a side-tunnel I'd found I could squeeze through. I had been for about five minutes.

  Maddy: I'm fine.

  Lacie: I don't believe you.

  Maddy: Alright, I'm not fine. I found a gap into where we were starting. That big damn sword is apparently indestructible, proping some blocks apart.

  Lacie: Oh. Is it bad?

  Maddy: Vitorio and Luxury were just gone, aside from a few pieces of magical gear. Mickey's last spell must have been a shield, because— I gagged —there's still his head and torso, not connected to each other.

  After a long silence, she sent, I know this sucks, but you need to loot them. We need everything we can get if we want to survive.

  Maddy: We killed them, and now we rob them?

  Lacie: You did everything you could to keep them alive after I started a fight. We just wanted to be left alone. If that makes them wish death on us, fuck them.

  Maddy: I can't do it.

  Lacie: I'm coming.

  Soon enough, she had squirmed her way to just outside where I was. "How did you fit through there?"

  I didn't reply.

  "Is there space to turn around once I'm inside?"

  I didn't reply.

  "Alright, I'm coming in." She forced herself into the hole, jammed as tight as she could, held out her arms, and said, "Pull."

  "What?"

  "Pull me through. It'll hurt, but I'll survive." As I didn't move, she said, "You know, this is real tight, and it hurts, and I can barely breath. Pull me through."

  I got up—halfway up, the rubble here still wasn't super spacious—and dragged her through. She lost 10% of her health and left a smear of blood, but only gave a few whimpers as it happened. A glow suffused her and she was better.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  "Now, wait outside."

  I wanted to think I was the tough one who could handle things, but I didn't hesitate to flee. A few seconds later, she said, "Now pull me out."

  I did, hating that I was hurting her, even though I knew she could heal up the instant she was inside.

  Partway back, I stopped and said, "If you look through that crack, you can see what's left of the crawlers from the hallway. I don't know how to reach them."

  She looked, clearly thought for a moment about it, then said, "Let's keep going for now."

  We headed back to our personal space, which had gained two additional doors. One door led to an Enhanced Crafting Studio. Another lead to a Training Room.

  After she explained them, I asked, "How is the training room better than just fighting mobs?"

  "You're not in danger of dying."

  "Yeah, but it's only an hour, and you're training one skill, it says. I'm out there, I'm always moving, dodging, throwing, so forth. I train like five or six skills while fighting, but only one in here."

  "Maybe that's good for you, but I can use it to train spells I can't normally cast. For example, my antidote is level 3 because I can only cast it if someone's actually poisoned. In there, I can cast it no matter what."

  Shaking her head as she looked at me, she continued, "You also might be able to train some of your especially-obscure skills that shouldn't come up constantly. For example, you can train find traps without stepping on a trap."

  "I'll train that, then. What are the tables?"

  She led me into the crafting room, where three tables were in a row.

  "I thought there were only tickets for two?"

  "I already had an tailor's table I found on the first floor. I think that these three are an excellent combo, and based on the chatter from others, almost nobody's got them because they're usually worse."

  "So we got the worse ones?"

  "We have a dyers' basin, which is a specialized alchemy table; a clothmaker's loom and wheel; and a tailor's table. There are a whole ton of people who have jeweler's stations, armorer stations, weaponsmiths, bomb studios, all sorts of things for weapons and armor. Because clothing is generally the weakest of the types of magic items, very few people went all in on it. That means it'll be good in trade, once that's possible. Apparently that's next floor. I will need to upgrade them, too, but I think these are good."

  "Well, I'll trust you on that. I'll do my hour of find traps. What about you?"

  "As I am worried these traps might be poisonous, I'll train antidote."

  We did our training, then prepared to head out. Before we left, Lacie took Luxury's enormous sword from her inventory. "You should take this."

  I put my hands behind my back. "I don't even use swords."

  "This is a legendary tier weapon that might come in handy. I know, it bothers you how we got it, but it's powerful, and Luxe was a vile douchebag so stop worrying about him."

  I relented, taking the sword into my inventory.

  Meteoric Montante of Dragon Flame

  +15 Strength

  +5% Strength

  Bearer may cast a level 15 Dragon's Breath Spell once every 30 hours.

  "So, this lets me make that wave of fire thing he did? You're already the caster, why not do that yourself?"

  "Because it originates from the sword, and you can get right up next to a crowd of monsters without dying."

  "Alright."

  "Now, let's get a plan together."