The alcoves continued down the hallway. As they walked, the alcoves became less full, but contained more bodies than not. Elijah stopped and looked at one body. Someone wrapped it from head to toe in a dark red cloth. His Reality Awareness activated, and he saw this one was at least just a prop.

  “Guys, come look at this,” Benjamin’s voice was quiet, tinged with fear. Elijah moved over to where the young mage was crouching by one of the few empty alcoves.

  “What’s up, Benjamin?” Nicholas asked as he knelt beside him. “Oh, shit.”

  Elijah didn’t see what they were concerned about.

  “Take a look at these marks, Elijah,” Nicholas grumbled, running his fingers along streaked marks in the stone’s surface. “This wasn’t something pulling itself free; something pulled one of these bodies out. And it’s fresh.” His finger came away coated in a black, oily substance.

  An eerie screeching echoed down the hallway, startling the group. Nicholas was immediately back on his feet, shield in hand and spear held at the ready.

  Something flew at them from down the hall—fast and black—smashing hard into Nicholas’ shield. Feathery wings jutted out where arms should be, flapping wildly as razor-sharp talons on oversized feet scored deep grooves into the shield.

  Sasha was the first to react, and a glowing white light burst out from the position of the creature. But as her ‘Turn Undead’ spell faded, they could see it had had no effect. Elijah tried to pull open its debug menu, but his eyes couldn’t track the creature’s erratic movements fast enough. This was the first time he’d tried to use the ranged version of the ability, and he was finding it difficult to focus on the creature.

  He kicked himself for not practicing with it while he had time. His eyes finally locked onto it as Nicholas used his shield to slam it into a wall.

  [DEBUG VIEW: Ink-Bound Wraith]

  Ink-Bound Wraith{

  Entity_ID: NPC_INKWRAITH_021

  Collision_State: TRUE

  Loot_Table: UNDYING_LIBRARY_WRAITH

  Faction_Tag: NPC_FOE

  XP_Multiplier: (Medium_4.0)

  Stats[

  Level: 35 (NULL/NULL XP)

  Health: 200 / 200

  Strength: 30 (Journeyman)

  Intelligence: 1 (Beginner)

  Dexterity: 39 (Journeyman)

  Constitution: 40 (Master)

  ]

  }

  ”What the hell is a level thirty-five monster doing in this dungeon?” Nicholas asked when Elijah gave him a quick rundown of the stats. Elijah was a bit surprised as well by how high its level and skills were. This was supposed to be a low-level dungeon tied to Nethy; there was no reason or logic behind such a powerful creature being here.

  “Strength or Dexterity?” he called out, reminding Nicholas that he needed orders. Nicholas, the tank and leader, made the decision about which skill to drop.

  “Dexterity,” Nicholas called as the creature got a clawed foot around his shield and cut through his thick Heartwood plate armor. Elijah watched Nicholas’ health drop, but Sasha caught him almost immediately with a healing spell.

  Elijah input his change and confirmed his selection. The creature immediately seemed more sluggish and clumsy. It tried to strike Nicholas with its clawed foot once more, but he could grab it this time.

  “Coming your way, Benjamin.” Nicholas shouted, twisting his body and flinging the monster at the mage.

  Everything happened all at once, and Elijah had trouble tracking what was going on at the time. As it turned out, Benjamin and Nicholas had done some training together. The moment Nicholas made the call, the mage was already bringing his hands together. A ‘Thunder Clap’ blasted out, making Elijah’s ears ring. The spell caught the Wraith and sent it flying backward toward Nicholas.

  The tank hadn’t idled after throwing the creature; instead, he’d dropped to a knee and activated his ‘Shield Wall’ spell. Roots sprouted from the ground, reinforcing not only the man’s shield but his body as well.

  The Wraith slammed hard into the shield, screeching loudly as something crunched loudly.

  ”Elijah!” Nicholas yelled, reaching around his shield and stabbing through the creature with his spear.

  Elijah was slow to react but finally caught up to speed after several long seconds. Elijah was their second strongest damage dealer, in part thanks to the fact that he, like Nicholas, possessed a Celestial-tier weapon.

  He summoned his blade and rushed forward, stabbing forward he cut through the Wraith and dug deep into Nicholas’ shield. The creature’s health plunged to nothing, and Elijah expected it to either stop moving, prepared to dissipate as soon as the players looted it, or to burst into a burst of particles leaving its loot on the ground.

  Instead, it did something much more disconcerting. Its body turned to oil and poured into a puddle on the ground. Then that puddle slithered off into cracks in the ground, leaving behind a tar-like residue on the floor and Nicholas’ shield.

  “Well,” Bo said, letting out a low whistle. “That’s just gross. And it didn’t leave behind any loot either.”

  Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  Elijah had a very bad feeling about that; he opened his stat menu and looked it over quickly. “We didn’t kill it.”

  “What do you mean we didn’t kill it?” Nicholas asked, his hands stilling as he tried to clear the residue off his shield. “We watched its health bar zero out. How would we not have killed it?”

  “It was level thirty-five with an experience multiplier of four. We didn’t earn a single experience point from that fight.”

  Level: 28 (10756 / 10824 XP)

  It was meta-gaming, but it was damning evidence that somehow they hadn’t killed the Ink-Bound Wraith.

  “Bo? Any idea what that thing was?” Nicholas asked.

  The rogue shook his head. “Not a creature that I came across in development. But the biggest problem here is its level. This dungeon shouldn’t be able to summon creatures that powerful.”

  “So, what?” Benjamin asked, he was leaning in, trying to get a closer look at one spot into which the wraith puddle had vanished. “Elijah already said that the dungeon had done something earlier.”

  “It’s worse than that,” Bo responded, looking down the hallway where it had come from. “The dungeon cores just can’t change themselves like that. Even minor changes to their layout or enemy types are incredibly damaging to their stability.”

  His eyes met Elijah’s own. They’d both experienced what happened when a dungeon went too far and made changes too fast. Elijah had needed to rip a core in half to put it out of its misery after a rogue developer had messed with it. That core had begged for death. Now here was a core that was doing the same thing seemingly of its own accord.

  “Something is very wrong here, and it’s escalating fast,” Elijah muttered, glancing uneasily at the dark alcoves lining the hall.

  “Think we need to retreat and try coming back later?” Nicholas asked, eyes matching Elijah’s gaze. His voice sounded as uncertain as Elijah felt.

  Part of Elijah wanted to agree, to retreat until they could gain some more levels and then try to conquer this dungeon again. Somewhere deeper in the dungeon there was a core that was hurting itself, or being hurt, to keep them away. He was worried that it would only become worse, more unstable, if they turned around now and came back. He wanted to keep going. And part of him felt that he needed to keep going.

  “I think we can handle it,” Elijah finally answered after several beats. “We can always turn around if it becomes too much.”

  Nicholas grunted his agreement, his shoulders loosening as they agreed on a course of action. Elijah thought he saw the man’s eyes glaze over in a menu. Maybe he was checking his inventory or stats, but Elijah couldn’t help shaking the feeling that there was something wrong.

  They continued working their way down the hallway. The alcoves slowly became more empty over time, and that same black oil was even more present. It didn’t seem like ink to Elijah, even if that made the most sense to him.

  Bo was somewhere up ahead, hidden behind his stealth skill and scouting out the passage to make sure it was safe. With luck, if another of those creatures attacked, he’d be able to avoid them and then be behind it for a sneak attack as it wailed on Nicholas’ shield.

  A sudden, almost imperceptible tap sounded from the wall to their left.

  Elijah and Benjamin immediately tensed, looking at the stone wall where the sound originated. Nicholas brought his hand up, signaling for the group to freeze and be quiet. They heard nothing else for several long, tense seconds. Then, a soft, dry scratching began, like something heavy being dragged over rough stone.

  “Benjamin, go get Bo,” Nicholas whispered as he moved to be between the rest of the party and the sound.

  Benjamin moved swiftly but quietly, picking up speed as he moved further away from the party. As he went around the corner, the sound halted, causing Elijah to fear that whatever was behind, or within, the walls was chasing the mage.

  Elijah activated his Reality Awareness, staring intently at the brickwork. He had to check further down the tunnel to confirm, but the bricks in front of them were definitely different. They had code attached to them that a normal wall didn’t, and shouldn’t, have. Code that Elijah couldn’t currently parse.

  The sound returned, this time louder and definitely much closer. The bricks rattled within the wall and the same black ichor oozed from the mortar.

  Nicholas took a step back, bumping into Elijah. “We should go,” Nicholas whispered, turning toward where Benjamin had disappeared.

  The ichor was only oozing out on a section of wall about ten meters long. Assuming it didn’t follow them, they’d be able to get past it relatively quickly.

  Then the floor rumbled.

  Stonework from the floor began rising in front of and behind the three of them. Elijah felt panic welling up within him. He made a mad dash to the walls that were being raised, but as he got closer, they sped up. Dust rained from the ceiling as the blocks of stone contacted the ceiling and trapped them inside.

  “No, no, no!” Elijah screamed, repeating the word over and over as he scrambled at the new wall, attempting to figure out the trick to getting it to lower. His mind flashed back to the time during the fight with Arturus beneath the inland sea. The memory was still fresh even after a month.

  He refused to drown in this muck.

  Nicholas was by his side almost immediately. “Watch yourself,” he grunted, raising his shield and activating his ‘Dash’ skill. A loud bang echoed through the small chamber as he made contact. Elijah saw the man’s health dip, but the wall was unaffected.

  As the two men were staring at the wall, trying to figure out what they were going to do, they heard Sasha cry out behind them.

  “Guys!”

  Between where the men were standing and Sasha’s position, a third wall was rising from the floor.

  This one was closer; either group could make it over before it closed without issue.

  So why wasn’t Sasha moving? Fear?

  Elijah started to move towards her. Even if that meant a second wall between them and the exit, it would be better to stick together. He tried to lift his feet to run, but the oily substance spreading out on the floor stuck to his boots. She had to be stuck too. In desperation, he quickly summoned his familiars. Bitter Root and Bitter Dryad over by Sasha, while he summoned Bitter Bat near himself. He gave them orders to help them get free of the muck.

  The Bitters fought, pulling and pushing with all their might to nudge either player from the muck, but soon it was too late. With another rumble and shower of dirt, the newest wall met the ceiling.

  The ooze stopped rising as the wall slid into place, but they had a new issue. Two glowing red eyes were now staring at them from the ceiling, the only source of light in the room now that they were cut off from any torches.

  “How very curious,” it spoke with a rhythmic lilt. “Two monarchs, here to try to cleanse the Blood Oath Throne. Which shall succeed, assuming either manages it.”