Strange hurried away from the battle site and into my shadow as I stayed put, listening to the howls. After a few moments when nothing nearby moved, I crept toward the carcasses with him by my side, monitoring our surroundings.

  I didn’t want to leave the bodies here without harvesting anything from them. They weren’t my kills, but Strange needed to eat as well. Before I could move very far, the sound of something running in our direction made me freeze.

  Dark shadows covered where I currently stood, so I waited.

  [Sulphur Hound Warrior, Level 72, Predator, Unknown.]

  [Sulphur Hound, Level 68, Prey, Unknown.]

  [Sulphur Hound, Level 66, Prey Unknown.]

  The warrior glanced around the clearing while the other two raced toward the fallen hounds.

  My grip tightened on my knife, and I lowered my center of gravity by crouching.

  Bright green eyes traced the ground in the clearing, but before they could reach where I hid, I launched myself at them.

  I slammed into the side of the Warrior Hound before it reacted. My knife dug deep as a chirp came from behind.

  The other two Hounds twisted toward Strange as he used his distraction skill.

  The Warrior didn’t even flinch at the attack. Instead, he twisted his head closer to me, teeth flashing way too close.

  The stench of sulfur increased, making my eyes water and chest tighten. I yanked away from the creature.

  Blood dripped from its side, splattering the gravel below as he chased me. Its claws lengthened, digging deeper into the gravel, sending it all over the place.

  I rolled away deeper into the shadows near the towering stone walls, my form vanishing. I used that moment to change directions.

  It only distracted the Warrior for a second, and by the time I twisted to stab it again, it had already turned in my direction. My knife didn’t sink into its neck like I wanted, but I dug deep into its front right shoulder.

  This time, I flooded it with cold. Heat didn’t feel like the correct choice in this situation.

  The Hound screamed and tried to yank back, but my fingers grabbed onto its thick fur, pulling it close into a hug. Its teeth snapped at the back of my head, but it couldn’t turn enough to reach me.

  My fingers suddenly heated, and pain rippled across my arm wherever I had contact with the creature. I didn’t let go immediately. Instead, I pushed even more cold into the knife before leaping back when the pain overrode my willpower. My arm and shoulder hurt, like I’d touched something too hot, and now everything felt chilly.

  Teeth snapped at my back as one of the other Hounds tried to interrupt our fight.

  It didn’t surprise me at all, as claws grew from my hand, and I sliced at its right eye. Three golden lines appeared across its face as its eye popped.

  The hound jerked back, screaming.

  The warrior limped toward the lava pool, since the right half of his body didn’t work right. Whatever I’d hit in its shoulder had done more damage than I’d thought.

  I darted after him, and he tried to speed up, flinging himself closer to the hot pool. Before he could slip into the magma, I increased my speed to reach him. I slammed my knife into the back of his neck, and down he went.

  I paused my notifications before they popped up as I twisted back to the rest of the battle.

  The blinded Hound raced toward the lava as well, completely ignoring me, while the other lay almost dead near Strange.

  Wisps of vapor rose near the lava pit, and the hound twisted toward it, breathing in deep. The eye on the side of its head glowed.

  My jaw dropped, then I raced to it as I realized what had happened.

  It twisted in my direction but didn’t have a chance to attack as I shoved it into the lava pool, before dodging back from splatter.

  My arm, shoulder, and hand hurt from the action, but I didn’t want to chance the creature healing completely from the weird mist.

  The hound slowly sunk, then something yanked it beneath the surface.

  My radar cleared as the last hound died, leaving just the two of us in the clearing and whatever hid under the lava.

  “Now, that was interesting,” I whispered.

  The Sulper hounds could heal from the horrible vapor. No wonder the warrior had been listed as a predator.

  My stomach growled loudly, and I crept to the warrior's body before dragging it farther away from the lava pool. Then, I got to work.

  As I cut away to reach the beast’s core, I ate several hunks of meat. A smoky BBQ flavor filled my mouth, making me crave brisket or ribs on the grill.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  My father used to tell stories of real meat, and gatherings where you roasted cuts over a fire. I guessed this tasted like the real version; it was certainly better than the processed food we’d been stuck with.

  By the time I got to the heart, I was ready for more food. My shoulder had healed somewhat, but slowly. Too slowly.

  I tore a chunk of the heart and chewed it for a few moments. That voice screamed inside me to gobble it all down, just swallow and eat more. I resisted, even though I wanted more of it, and concentrated on gaining stats. Only stats mattered. I let the notifications roll in as I carefully enjoyed every bite.

  [You have gained experience from combat.]

  [You have gained experience from combat.]

  [You have devoured a Sulphur Hound Warrior and gained 3 stat points in Toughness.]

  That wasn’t the stat I’d hoped for, but it helped. Anything on the physical versus mental side of things would keep my stats going in the direction I wanted.

  Butchering the rest of the hound took no time at all, and I piled it up in my inventory.

  Strange tore tiny bites off of his kill and glanced at me as I stood up.

  “Keep?” he asked.

  “If you want, I can cut it up and store it.”

  His eyes grew wide, and I swore he drooled.

  “I know they are tasty…” I added as I quickly cut his kill. I didn’t take the heart, and I left it for him. He gobbled it down even though it was huge compared to him.

  Too bad the third hound had ended up in the lava. I wanted to stock up on this tasty meat. It was so much better than what we found in the plains, or the forest.

  Time to go hunting.

  Both Strange and I vanished into the shadows before heading into the opening the hounds had come through. More sharp jagged rocks stretched before us as the path twisted into tight corners.

  Several corners later and the next potential fight registered on my radar.

  Strange darted ahead to find out what he could. This time, I prepared myself for the images that flickered through my mind.

  More hounds. My mouth watered.

  [Sulphur Speedster Hound, Level 74, Prey, Tasty BBQ.]

  [Sulphur Speedster Hound, Level 76, Prey, Tasty BBQ.]

  In this fight, I didn’t wait for Strange to take charge; I used my Soarstone to leap up high. Then I went for an immediate kill shot on the first as I crunched down on its back, snapping its spine into pieces. With a flash of my spear, I finished it.

  [You have gained experience from combat.]

  The other tried to flee, but Strange used that handy distraction which let me cut into its hind leg, slowing the creature down immediately. From there, it wasn’t hard to take it out.

  [You have gained experience from combat.]

  All I cared about was one thing. Speedster.

  Time to see if these could provide the stat points I needed.

  I went directly for the hearts with a wild grin.

  [You have devoured Sulphur Speedster Hound and gained 3 stat points in Quickness.]

  [You have devoured Sulphur Speedster Hound and gained 4 stat points in Quickness.]

  Smoky BBQ flavor that didn’t linger. Still, I skipped the butchering job and tossed the entire carcasses into my inventory. The second stacked on top of the first, which was darned useful.

  “Strange, let's find more of these…”

  Our journey around the next corner made it clear the labyrinth thought we’d be chasing them down. Gaps in the path, sharp stones, and other traps hid within the next segment of the dungeon.

  Flickers of smoke darted down on us and delivered painful fiery nips. Yet, none of our attacks worked on them. After a few of these sneak attacks, I finally got enough of a look at a smokey wisp to bring up a notification.

  [Cinder Sprites, Level 78, Prey, Unknown.]

  A whole flock of them distracted us near the traps, trying to get us to fall and hurt ourselves or trip into lava flows.

  My claws did nothing, my heated blade didn’t work, gusts of wind just made them leave for a little while before they returned. We pushed ahead, trying to ignore them and just move on, since there didn’t seem to be much else to do. Fortunately, the damage they could do once we knew what they were was also limited.

  The next section ahead narrowed into a tight corridor. For me, it wasn’t bad. For someone Kabi’s size, they’d be stuck.

  “What do you guys want?” I finally growled at one of the sprites that was still harassing us.

  It paused in the air in front of my face, appearing almost like a leaf made out of ash. It squeaked.

  Strange chirped back in reply, then glanced at me. “Food?”

  I blinked, then yanked out an entire stack of the hares from the earlier part of the dungeon.

  The sprite dove at the bodies quicker than I could follow. It squeaked again, and several more appeared out of nowhere.

  We quickly fled the area, but none of the little fuckers followed as we hurried away.

  The narrow path opened up into five different options.

  I headed to the left. The same reasoning led me as the last maze I was in: you always kept to one wall, then you should find your way out. After the first hour, we took a break without seeing or noticing any creatures, even as I stretched my senses out.

  “Well, this sucks…” Everything felt the same: the same black stone, some lava pools here and there and lots of choices. Whenever I hit a dead end, we’d keep to the left. I swore we’d already passed this section, but it wasn’t possible unless the paths changed, or we were in a loop.

  Hopefully, it didn’t do that.

  After a few more minutes, I was ready to swear it did.

  Strange wandered at my feet as we kept going down pathway after pathway of the same freaking thing. Nothing changed. My radar changed inside my head, but nothing else.

  Finally, I took a breather.

  “We aren’t getting far…” I said to my erstwhile companion. While my stomach wasn’t hungry, I felt the edges of tiredness creeping in. I needed little sleep, but today felt like it’d been a long day. Some shut eye would be great, but this wasn’t a safe place.

  “We need to find a good resting place.”

  I closed my eyes and reached out for any aura in the area. Each of the stones sticking out of the ground shimmered, just like the massive trees in the forest. Yet, even in the distance, nothing changed position.

  There had to be something I was missing.

  “Me scout,” said Strange before he darted ahead down the corridor. My senses expanded as he traveled farther and farther away from me.

  I touched the bond stretching between us, and suddenly, a map appeared inside my head of everywhere we had traveled. The shock of it appearing caused me to let go of the connection, which I quickly grasped again.

  “What skill is this?” I said out loud, though Strange surely couldn’t hear me.

  More of the map filled in as he traveled down the pathways. This path crossed one we’d traveled before, and Strange picked the leftmost one, making me smile.

  Maybe we could find somewhere safe to rest for a while?

  Panic twisted from Strange, and he started dashing back my way.

  Without even thinking about it, I raced in his direction.

  Loud thuds of footsteps coming from that way filled me with dread for the little guy, and I pushed to go even faster.