Jenna once again saw the world zooming below her through the eyes of Captain Beaky. She had used Transference to create a mental link with him, but this time she also infused him with freebie points to enhance his stamina and resilience. After all, he would need them for the nonstop journey to Madison.

  From Beaky's aerial perspective, the city appeared to be in disarray. Many buildings were in poor repair; some were burned or outright destroyed, as if they had been under siege.

  A mob was fighting at the mall entrance. Entire families struggled violently over groceries, half-filled supermarket trolleys, and even coupons strewn across the floor. No one was attempting to maintain any semblance of order.

  Beaky was carrying a small dimensional beacon in his beak, taken from one of the weakest creatures they had defeated in the Lair of Bethesda.

  Jenna ordered Beaky to fly toward a small, shadow-covered alley and place the beacon there. She then gave him the rest of the day to explore the city, watch the monuments, try the local cuisine—whatever parrots do in their free time.

  Bob and Jenna emerged from the shadows of the alley thirty seconds later.

  “This is going to get ugly soon, Jenna,” Bob warned her. “They’re at the stage where parents fight over a foul in a school baseball match. They’re just one grocery-filled trolley away from a generational blood feud.”

  “Excuse me, good people!” Jenna called out, channeling all her freebie points into her spirit. “Yes, you there too, madam, the one hitting that gentleman’s head with a pineapple! Could you please pay attention to me for just one minute?”

  All the bystanders instantly stopped and looked at Jenna and Bob for a moment. Bob was in War Form, and both of them had donned their elven weaponry and armor, presenting an impressive sight.

  They all fled from them, screaming in terror, abandoning their hard-fought loot on the ground and not stopping until they disappeared.

  “I am afraid to ask what stat you used, Jenna,” Bob said. Sinister Glaring? Soul-Crushing Voice?”

  “I didn’t do anything, Bob!” Jenna protested. “They just seem to be afraid of adventurers,” she explained.

  “I wonder why,” Bob muttered grimly, as they crossed into the dungeon.

  The Mall was an inverted dungeon. The instance had invaded the real mall, like a malignant tumor cell, altering it in unexpected ways. A sense of wrongness permeated the air.

  Jenna’s enhanced senses detected multiple minor distortions, signs of Essence leaking into their world and altering reality.

  As she walked by, she couldn’t help but notice the food that the inhabitants of Madison were purchasing with their coupons. A whole shelf was filled with canned goods that bore disturbing names and slogans:

  -Screaming meatballs in happy sauce: Feed your stomach and your soul with them.

  -Schr?dinger’s noodles: perhaps you will eat them, perhaps you won't.

  -Human-grade food: keep your human pets happy and healthy

  “These people are truly desperate,” Jenna said. “They don’t look like citizens who have tamed a dungeon; they look like hostages to it.”

  Suddenly, Bob spotted a red flash from the corner of his eye.

  Truth Reveals Itself (Truthfinding 3)

  The user notices one crucial fact he had missed, despite available evidence.

  The Perk activates passively. Once it does, it will remain inactive for at least one full hour.

  The flash came from a poorly illuminated section of the wall, covered with sketches and drawings made by children.

  They depicted various Avatars, some engaged in combat with monsters. The faint light came from several lit candles scattered on the floor. Many of the drawings featured the names of the Avatars they depicted, written in crude, childlike handwriting: ...Zahra, 24th rank Ice Sorceress; Bel, 56th rank Veiled Swordsman; Ogha, 17th rank Wolven Druid…

  “What is this?” Jenna asked Bob, noticing his reaction.

  “I think it’s a memorial, Jenna. A monument to fallen Avatars—made by children, and hidden. My Truthfinding skill was activated by one of them,” Bob said, pointing to a specific drawing.

  “My God, there are tens of them…”

  At the bottom, in the clumsy handwriting of a very young child, one word stood out.

  Sorry

  Jenna felt shivers run down her spine.

  Elsewhere, in the Mall, Billy’s enhanced mind quickly created a mental blueprint of the dungeon. He used Essence Sight to determine its mystical properties.

  The Mall. Home of the Fleshweaver.

  Rank 7 dungeon

  Motif: Clothes Make the Man.

  Tags: Expendable, Labyrinth, Inverted

  The encounter with the ghouls was not a boss fight, just human scum taking advantage of a dungeon mechanic they understood well.

  Of course, that drew more questions. The Delver Association seemed to be nothing more than a mob of racketeers using the Mall’s gift cards as leverage to demand compliance from the citizens of Madison.

  Yet, they entered the dungeon without fear. A dungeon that had claimed the lives of many powerful adventurers, but which supposedly granted great rewards to those who managed to kill a boss.

  The late, not particularly missed, John had a knack for highlighting the value of these rewards and often mentioned how some unknown hero had managed to obtain a great gift just a couple of weeks ago.

  The message was clear: while there is risk involved, the potential benefits make it worthwhile. He sounded like a scammer trying to swindle you over the phone.

  There was only one possible explanation: humans were working together with the dungeon. They were sacrificing adventurers to it with their vague promises of loot and glory. The dungeon absorbed the essence generated by these heroes as they fought and died within it, using that essence to create rewards for its human accomplices.

  The Mall had to go. It was a festering wound upon the land. He would find and kill the Core and its six bosses, then build a symbiotic dungeon on the ruins of the old one.

  His enhanced hearing picked up a soft rustle from within a vast, spacious pet store.

  Unlike most of the mall, it was brightly illuminated, showcasing rows upon rows of animals in their holding pens. Cats, puppies, parrots, and even more exotic species like snakes and scorpions examined Billy through the bars of their cages or the glass in their pens.

  A single figure walked among the aisles. It was a tall, lanky humanoid dressed in an old trench coat, holding a cane in his right hand, which he tapped on the ground to help himself navigate. The creature was blind.

  Billy had found his first boss.

  As the creature slowly approached him, Billy noticed that it had no recognizable features above its mouth—just a smooth, blank patch of skin. Its maw was unnaturally large, stretching from side to side in a grin-like rictus that revealed sharp fangs, filed to a point.

  The creature bowed respectfully to Billy. Billy returned the gesture, astonished that a monster could acknowledge such formalities.

  Then, the boss drew a thin blade from within the sheath in his cane, reminiscent of a straight-bladed katana, and charged at Billy without making a sound.

  His Essence sight analyzed the foe:

  The Smotherer, Boss, Rank 64 Avatar.

  The boss moved like a bullet fired in a dream; only Billy’s inhuman dexterity saved him from being skewered in that first moment of combat. It was far too powerful for a boss, even one from a seventh-rank dungeon—it had about fifteen more ranks than it should have. Despite this, Billy's Elven Hero form was stronger by a few levels. He felt confident he could handle the challenge, as long as no other forces intervened.

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  As if the dungeon could read his mind, one of the glass panels in one puppy pen shattered. The puppy, a cute little thing, yowled in pain as its body stretched in many dimensions at the same time over one second. And then there was no puppy anymore. It had transformed into a humanoid wolf clad in feudal Japanese armor, armed with a naginata, a traditional kobudo halberd.

  His Essence Sight quickly analyzed the newcomer:

  Tanuki, Mob , Dog Warrior, Rank 21 Avatar

  Both of them attacked simultaneously. Billy needed only a second to spear the Tanuki through the heart, but during that brief moment, the Smotherer unleashed a flurry of attacks on Billy. This forced him onto the defensive, and he had to retreat as he desperately tried to block each strike. Amid the chaos, he heard cages opening and glass shattering as new creatures were released.

  - Tanuki, Mob, Dog Warrior, Rank 21 Avatar

  - Kitsune, Mob, Fox Warrior, Rank 21 Avatar

  - Tengu, Mob, Crow Warrior, Rank 21 Avatar

  - Kappa, Mob, Turtle Warrior, Rank 21 Avatar

  The Dungeon was using the essence he released as he fought the Smotherer to transform the pets into half-man warriors based on Japanese Folklore. He was going to have to fight a warrior almost as skilled as he was and a rapidly growing army of animal men at the same time.

  Billy's mind began to merge the images of all the humanoid warriors attacking him into a single, hulking brute: a wolf-headed beast with raven wings, clad in turtle armor and wielding a heavy iron mallet.

  -Army of One (Spear Mastery x 3): Create a mental composite image of all the enemies you are fighting at the same time. This image will feature the group's highest stats in each category and all its powers. You will enter a sleepwalking trance in which you will fight this composite creature. Your body will fight the real enemies. The results of both fights will be very similar.

  He intentionally left the Smotherer out of this mental construct. More animal warriors emerged every second, but in Billy’s mind, they all fused into the brute’s body as soon as they appeared. He knew his body would work miracles, bringing his mental visualization of the battle to life.

  The Smotherer continued to press him, launching sword attacks so rapid that Billy could hardly see the blade, forcing him to guess where it would strike next. He rolled onto his back over a metal table, temporarily evading the onslaught of the blind swordsman. The boss sliced his sword upward through the table; it stood firm as if untouched, then suddenly split in two, as if cut by a laser beam. As soon as his cover was gone, the Smotherer charged at Billy again.

  “Your days of tricking and devouring Avatars are over, Fleshweaver. I swear this on my honor!” Billy shouted into the dungeon, fully aware that the Core was watching.

  -Bound by Honor (Honor x 3): Gain 20% to all stats when acting to defend an honorable cause. If done at high cost, gain 30%.

  Suddenly, he felt Honor infuse his very cells, transforming him into a living weapon. His mind became the judge who sentenced the crime, his spirit the hangman leading the criminal to the scaffold, and his body the guillotine that took their life.

  He dodged the animal gestalt with such efficiency that he hardly seemed to move at all. With a swift thrust of his spear, he beheaded the creature and then turned his attention to the Smotherer. He unleashed a series of precise blows, inflicting a dozen cuts that forced the Smotherer to retreat.

  The Smotherer ran toward the nearest wall, and Billy pursued him, eager to end the fight quickly. To Billy’s surprise, the Smotherer kept running up the wall, reached the ceiling, and continued running along it as if gravity had reversed. As he passed Billy, he attempted a head cut that nearly caught him off guard, surprising the Everlasting with the audacity of his technique. Billy concluded that the Smotherer must possess Acrobatics Competency, as he displayed the same abilities that Stomparella had while fighting against Mutually Assured Destruction.

  His Army of One visualization ended as the gestalt brute fell. Then he saw the actual results of his actions. The corpses of sixteen animal warriors were strewn around the pet store, all of them struck down with precise and efficient spear thrusts. The Smotherer remained untouched, but more animals were emerging from their cages.

  It felt like going back to square one. Or not. His stats were higher, thanks to fighting for honor.

  The fight began again, but this time the Smotherer and his guards adopted a more cautious approach. Billy re-created the mind gestalt, merging all the guards into a single entity, and exchanged blows with the blind swordsman.

  Strikes met counterstrikes as millennia of techniques countered each other, while the gestalt clumsily attempted to intervene on behalf of the swordsman. Billy fought like the wind, never pausing for a second, his body gracefully dodging all attacks as if they were moving in slow motion.

  -The Dance of Battle (Spear Mastery x3): You skillfully dodge all attacks. Double your body and derived stats solely for defensive purposes while moving without attacking. If you move and attack, the bonus is halved.

  As he exchanged blows with the swordsman, he began to grasp the fundamentals of the swordsman's fighting style. Within thirty seconds, he could predict the following four moves. The Smotherer’s attacks became less efficient, while Billy’s spear nicked him repeatedly, leaving his body covered in wounds.

  -Five Steps Ahead x2: You learn your enemy’s method by observing them while they fight you. Enemies fighting you hand-to-hand get a cumulative 1% penalty each second to their Body stat, which only applies to their attacks when directed at you or your attacks targeting them. The penalty is lost if they manage to hit you or stop one of your blows, but it starts building again. The penalty is capped at 50%

  Billy lunged with his spear, targeting the Smotherer’s chest. He anticipated that the swordsman would block the attack with his blade, dodge to the right, leap onto the table, and then attempt an overhead cut while somersaulting over him, aimed at his right shoulder. Billy positioned his spear precisely, hoping to make the Smotherer impale himself. With the spear in hand, his thoughts raced ahead of reality.

  His body moved in sync with his brain's instructions, like a professional orchestra under a conductor's baton. However, the song ended unexpectedly. The Smotherer aimed for Billy’s left shoulder instead of his right, inflicting a deep wound and thwarting Billy's counterattack.

  How had he known?

  Billy's enhanced mind found the answer within seconds: the blind swordsman possessed some sort of precognitive ability that allowed him to see a few seconds into the future. Although Billy was the superior fighter, the Smotherer hadn’t merely guessed his moves—he had seen them before they happened.

  Suddenly, Billy found himself losing again. He could hardly hold his spear, and blood loss was sapping his strength.

  He saw his enemy’s sword descend on his head while the humanoid warrior charged at his unprotected back. One chance. If he failed, he was dead.

  Billy pivoted on his left foot at the last possible moment, using his enemies as weapons against each other. The Smotherer’s sword cleaved the brute’s body in half, but his momentum was enough to tackle him into the wall.

  -Lethal Repertoire x2: Once per minute, remember a lethal spear fighting technique that adds 50% to Body and derived stats for your next attack or defense. If the situation is desperate, you create a new technique that will be added to your repertoire, and the cooldown is only 10 seconds.

  Billy felt the Chant, noting the Technique he had just created. It named it Billy’s Gambit and incorporated into the Coda of Belegrin.

  The Smotherer rose slowly, staggering on his feet. Both combatants were wounded now, and more animal warriors lay dead on the floor. They had stopped appearing, as it seemed the stores had run out of eligible pets. The fight would not last much longer.

  Suddenly, the Smotherer threw his sword into the air and clapped his hands. The sound extinguished all sources of light within its range, plunging the room into darkness.

  Billy found himself battling a blind warrior in his element. He felt, rather than heard, his enemy sliding toward him in the dark, preparing to deliver a fatal blow.

  Drawing upon the Chant from his soul, he opened the Chant’s seventy-three gates at once. A choir of heroes, poets, warriors, priests, and demigods sang their deeds in perfect harmony, blinding the swordsman with sound just as darkness blinded Billy.

  However, Billy needed no sight. He instinctively knew what the Smotherer would try, and his foe’s precognitive powers were still on cooldown.

  The boss screamed once as he ran into Billy’s spear, piercing his own heart. The fight was over, but Billy still felt danger lurking around.

  -Speak the Chant x6: By chanting a Coda, invoke a magical construct based on the Chant, with half your stats. It will remain for as long as you keep singing and ten seconds after that. If destroyed, the Chant becomes inaccessible for six hours. You can have only one construct at a time.

  The construct will have five Competency ranks if you can only sing while summoned.

  If you can also move or perform minor physical or mental chores, it will have only four ranks.

  If you can perform any action, including fighting, it will have three ranks.

  Performing a forbidden action counts as stopping the song.

  He sang the Coda of Beral, who had stolen fire from the sun by lighting a torch with it—a torch made from his own shroud, which he would later use to sacrifice his body in penance for his sin, seeking forgiveness from the sun.

  Suddenly, a ghostly figure of a noble elf wielding an impossibly bright torch appeared at his side, casting aside the shadows. The construct let out a shout of warning and hurled the torch at a point above Billy's head.

  Billy heard a piercing shriek as the flames illuminated an almost invisible giant spider poised to leap onto him—the Fleshweaver.

  The creature swiftly fled along the ceiling, moving with incredible grace and escaped into the air ducts, compressing its body as if it were made of jelly.

  Billy realized then that the Fleshweaver was not a fighter. Its weapons were stealth, deceit, and opportunity. It had waited until he was weakened from the fight to make its move. Only the presence of Beral had saved him.

  Then he witnessed something unbelievable: a wisp of mystic energy began to emerge from the fatal wound he had inflicted on the Smotherer.

  Essence.

  But how was this possible? Only Experientials could emit it.

  He examined the Smotherer's body and noticed something strange within it. Pulling his hands into the wound, he tore it apart. The Smotherer’s entire body vanished in a cloud of foul-smelling smoke, revealing another body inside—a warrior with his eyes covered by a veil.

  An Avatar, one of the adventurers who had entered the Labyrinth in search of the bosses to slay.

  This was the way the Fleshweaver played his game. He wove his bodies on the Adventurers he captured, essentially transforming them into the bosses of the dungeon. He then fed off the essence generated from their battles. All the bosses within the dungeon were enslaved and mind-controlled Avatars, possibly formidable ones.

  That posed an additional problem. He had to try to beat the bosses without killing them.

  Thank god Bob and Jenna were not here. It would not do to end up fighting one of them.