Leo found himself within the swirling, raging storm filled landscape yet again, only this time he could perceive it a bit better.

  The impossible maelstrom, coloured and colourless all at once, hardened into a barren landscape like a world stripped to bone.

  Those same rainbow eyes peered through the storm, close and impossibly distant.

  The feeling was not fear he got from them, but curiosity. Leo tried to speak but no words would come out. He expected to be awoken shortly like last time but instead heard a deep, bone chilling voice.

  “Interesting. I thought you a figment of my imagination. A hopeful delirium. Yet here you are again.” There was a pause before it continued.

  “It is faint but I sense your power. You must–

  A strike of lightning struck hard into the landscape, making the entity wince in what looked like annoyance.

  “Damned system interference,” it cursed. “Listen quickly for I believe we will not meet again until your soul is forged more than it currently is. Do not let the storm take you.”

  Leo was then wrenched from his sleep, a layer of sweat covered his body as he sat up.

  The sun was already striking through the open windows. He must have slept a bit longer than he should have.

  What the hell was that thing anyway?

  Was that place real? A hallucination? Leo didn’t know. But the warning struck, and he couldn’t shake the sense that it mattered.

  The feeling of familiar bond that place gave was intoxicating.

  Almost like home… he shook the thought. He wasn’t related to whatever that thing was, nor had he lived on some crazy barren planet with impossible storms. He shoved the thought away before it could take root.

  Leo got himself up to have breakfast and a soul restoring drink of heavenly cold water. He thanked whatever system entity he could for making the water stored in the canteen so cold and refreshing.

  Everyone was already gathered around the table. Leo returned a few sleepy good mornings and took a seat beside Lena. The conversation continued after he was settled.

  “We have three choices as far as I can tell,” Cecelia continued, holding up three fingers.

  “One. We form a group of five, make sure they are level 5 and attempt that ‘Dungeon’ you discovered.

  Two. We try to move towards the large tower through the swathes of monstrous ants.

  Three. We hold out in this area and look for more people to fortify ourselves.

  If anyone has a better idea, speak now,” she finished.

  Bjorn gave his opinion first. “While I think moving towards that tower would yield the best chances at finding more people, it also carries a lot of risk. I'm open to a combination of One and Three. We level up and fortify, maybe attempt the dungeon when we are stronger with more people around.”

  “Hmm,” Cecelia mused, “I can accept that. I would like to look upon this dungeon myself however. It has my curiosity piqued.”

  “I'd also like to see it,” Leo added.

  “Alright then, if there’s no more objections…” Bjorn paused, no one spoke up. “Let's head out towards the dungeon to have a look. Any ants we encounter we will try and kill to get more people up levels,” Bjorn said, finalising the topic.

  As they were finishing up discussions, other people had already eaten and prepared to leave. Leo had to quickly eat one of the food rations they had, during which Ashley came and sat next to him.

  “Hey, thanks for helping me with my new skill last night. I realise I'm thanking you for punching me a bunch, but it was fun!” She beamed a smile at him.

  Leo swallowed his mouthful of flavourless brick and smiled a gentle smile in return, noticing from the other side of Ashley, Jasper was seething at him once again. He had no idea what that guy's problem was. He chose to ignore him and continue the pleasant conversation.

  “No problem. I'm glad you had fun, I did too. which is weird to admit when it’s about punching a woman.” He chuckled.

  To his surprise, she hugged him quickly and tightly.

  “Thank you!”

  She ran off before he could even hug back.

  Jasper looked as if a vein was going to pop from his temple, face flushed red. Leo returned to his meal, quiet again.

  The hug lingered longer than he expected.

  Leo stared at the half-eaten ration in his hand, heat creeping up his neck.

  Don’t be weird, he told himself. It was just a hug.

  Breakfast finished, everyone got their few things together, armed themselves and made the march towards the dungeon Bjorn and others had discovered yesterday.

  They moved through streets of broken urban design for an hour or so. They came across a few ants that Bjorn and the others below level 5 got involved in. Bjorn finally hit level 5. Jasper and Lena were still only level 3 by the time they made it past the heavy city area, both disinclined to join in the combat, even when the fight was all but assured.

  What greeted the group on arrival was unlike the suburban maze of streets and houses. They were more like derelict shacks surrounding a larger gated factory building. It wasn't quite normal however, as what should have been a gate or entrance to the large building was instead replaced by a swirling blue vortex.

  Leo recognised it instantly. A dungeon entrance.

  Recognising it didn’t make it any less unreal. The vortex twisted in patterns that never repeated, and he caught himself staring.

  The group moved carefully towards the portal, checking around them to see if there were any ants lurking in wait. Being in such an open area felt risky, the cover of the houses providing more safety than once realised.

  The area was clear, still having been cleared out from Bjorn's group yesterday.

  “So, this is it,” Bjorn announced. “Yesterday we got a screen thing pop up as we approached.”

  Almost as if summoned by Bjorn himself, a screen popped up in front of Leo's vision.

  Dungeon Discovered:

  The Beast Pens

  If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

  Maximum Party size: 5

  Minimum level requirement: 5

  Each party will join separate instances

  Once entered, cannot be exited until 24 hours have passed or the dungeon is completed.

  It was similar to what he expected in his experience in games. Although he wasn't sure how to make a ‘party’, there wasn’t any obvious ‘Invite to party button’.

  There wasn't a menu or way to navigate system screens at all in fact, all he could access was a status and expanded information on skills and titles.

  That 24 hour lock-in was quite daunting, if not a little appealing to Leo. Trapped in a dungeon with unknown threats for a full day. He'd be able to get his fill of combat and then some.

  The maximum party size was five, which meant technically it could be attempted alone… the thought excited Leo for a moment before he pushed that dangerous thinking aside. It was a maximum party of five for a reason. He wasn’t some kind of one man army, despite what people’s confidence in him was doing for his ego.

  “How does a party even work? Does it mean, like, going in at the same time or what?” Ashley asked no one in particular.

  “No idea. I can't imagine it means a celebration,” Bjorn said, chuckling to himself. “Kid, any thoughts?”

  Leo just gave what information he could speculate, “Usually ‘parties’ are formed when someone invites someone else to a party or group. Then they can enter places like this together. It's normal in games with instanced dungeons.”

  Pretty much everyone looked at him like he was talking a different language that their translation skill couldn't work on.

  “So if I just try reaaaaally hard to invite you to my party it'll work?” Ashley joked and shut her eyes tight while facing Leo.

  To his amazement, a screen appeared before him,

  Ashley Rosewood has invited you to a party.

  Accept?

  Yes/no

  This party can only be formed within the area of a Dungeon and will disband when out of range.

  Leo selected ‘Yes' and then in the corner of his vision he could see Ashley's name with three filled bars of red, blue and green. He could now see her resources! That was insanely useful. Keeping an eye on the healer’s mana was crucial when fighting. No mana? No healing.

  “It worked! I can see Leo in my party!” she exclaimed, joyfully.

  ~

  Jasper looked on at the people before him in disgust and resentment. He hated them all.

  They were all below him.

  Worst of all, Leo. The name gave him a dirty taste in his mouth he couldn’t wash out.

  Ever since that piece of garbage had arrived, they had all been fawning over him or looking to him for advice as if he was some all knowing deity and not seeing him for what he really was.

  He was a fraud.

  And somehow they were all falling for it. Claiming to have four Essences! What a joke. He could have at least made the lie somewhat believable. Everyone was too stupid to realise his obvious lie.

  He should have been the one to be looked upon and valued, not Leo.

  He was gifted with the power of nature. What could be better than that? That bastard even dared take the kill of that ant away from him and claimed to have saved him! That bitch Ashley he brought back claiming him a liar then after, clearly they had planned something like that in advance to make him look bad.

  Jasper even graciously offered to look after Lena and keep her safe. Hoping that the women would then be thankful for his unwavering heroism and protection. But no! They ignored him and didn't respond to any of his advances.

  Instead he heard about how both of them felt safer when Leo or Bjorn was around, even that silent weirdo Ron made them feel safer than he did!

  It wasn't fair.

  The voice in his head he kept trying to ignore kept pushing his emotions higher and higher.

  “Kill him in his sleep, claim it was an ant or that someone broke in. You will be safe Jasper.”

  It wasn't his own voice that spoke to him. It was something else. Something sinister. Jasper ignored the voice at first as he didn't take orders from anyone. Especially not some dumb voice in his head.

  It had been getting harder and harder to ignore the more he saw Leo and Ashley flirting and laughing together. His rage fit to bursting as the voice continued to whisper madness to him. Madness that started to sound more appealing and less crazy by the hour.

  He looked upon the portal, seeing that they were all standing in front of it. Seeing Ashley cheer and smile at that con man. It was too much. The voice chose this moment to speak to him.

  “Push her into the portal,” the voice said in a slow whisper.

  No, he wouldn't do that! He couldn't… They would cast him out or try to kill him for sure!

  “Make it look like an accident. No one will blame you. Do it now." The voice trailed on. Each word fading out like a breeze on the wind.

  There was no way to do it like that even if he wanted to. Jasper didn't realise his own feet were moving towards her.

  “Now!” the voice snapped.

  Before he realised what his own body was doing, Jasper ran towards the group but purposefully tripped.

  And pushed Ashley straight through the portal.

  ~

  They were just finishing up looking at the party menu when Ashley was sucked into the portal before him.

  “Ashley!” Leo shouted—too late.

  She was gone before Leo could properly react. Others gasped or exclaimed in shock.

  Leo's vision turned red as the storm within him surged. The world narrowed to Jasper’s face. He grabbed him from the ground, lifting him in the air by his chest piece without issue until he was a head above him, feet dangling.

  “What the fuck did you just do?” he yelled, eyes wide with rage.

  Steam began to rise from his skin, permeating through his armour and showing even in the heat of the day as he poured stamina into Fuel the Fire. His grip tightened as Jasper’s face grew paler.

  “It was an accident! I didn't mean it! Please, you have to believe me!” Jasper pleaded, looking genuinely sorry and utterly terrified.

  Leo didn't believe it for a second. He was about to smash him down with all the might he could muster. Break the little rat in half, when a voice pulled him back.

  “Let him go kid, we have to help Ashley,” Bjorn tried to reason. Placing his hand on Leo's shoulder.

  Leo thought about Ashley and tossed Jasper to the ground without a care for his safety. Jasper landed in a thud, skidding along the dirt, coughing and sputtering from the pain.

  “We can't just rush in after her. You guys weren't in her party, you'd be put into a different version of the same dungeon,” Leo said, enraged, but in control enough to not yell.

  Cursing his own idiocy, he realised he was still in her party. He looked and saw her health was still full and breathed a small sigh of relief.

  “I'm in her party!” he exclaimed quickly. “I'll try and invite three more to make it five so we can go get her.”

  “Good idea. Let’s do it.” Bjorn nodded.

  Leo tried to invite Bjorn into the party and was met with a notification.

  Only the party leader may invite others to the party.

  “Fuck!” Leo cursed in rage. “Only Ashley can invite people to the party, what a stupid fucking system.”

  “Fuck this, I'm going in.” His blood was boiling and his courage was at a peak. Someone needed to save her.

  “That is reckless and potentially suicidal,” Cecelia said flatly, stepping between him and the portal. “Before, it would have only been her to potentially die. Now you want to go and die with her. Do you really believe one more person will change the outcome? Are you really willing to risk everything to save this woman you just met only two days ago?”

  Cecelia’s words made sense, he could see the reasoning and logic. Logic and reasoning wouldn’t change his mind, nor would it save her life.

  “I am. It's not even a choice.”

  “It could be a constant hell for 24 hours. You still wish to go?”

  Leo nodded. “I’m her best chance—her only chance.”

  Cecilia's expression morphed from stern and scolding to soft and gentle. She turned to the side, tilting her head slightly towards the portal.

  “Go on then.”

  No one else said a word. It had all happened too fast and there was no way for them to help. It was a silent send off, many of whom believing it to be the last time they saw him.

  Without any fanfare or well-wishes, Leo stepped through the portal.

  Jasper kept his face down, but something inside him twisted with satisfaction.

  “If you think you're off the hook just because I made the Kid let you go, you're sorely mistaken,” Bjorn said in the most angry voice Jasper had ever heard from the man.

  Jasper could only quiver as the group all looked down on him.

  Meanwhile the voice in his head laughed maniacally. “Well done Jasper. That was hilarious.”