All the myriad colors spun in the tunnel around him. It was still strange to him that his friends don’t see the same thing during transitions to dungeons. He had so much to follow up on. If he wasn’t under this quest from Wukong to clear five bolster dungeons before the next full moon, he could stop moving and consolidate everything he had learned. CJ would love to focus on his reverse enchanting class ability. He could see lots of use from that based on the gear was wearing right now.

  As purple and yellow spun and refracted past him he caught an outline in the color patterns. It was bipedal and had a tail. Was it that dog he keeps seeing again? At this point it was no mere coincidence.

  His thoughts about that strange image were put on the backburner as he landed on a solid steel plane. Char marks were everywhere. The ground he was standing on was giving off a steady wave of heat. Looking around he could see a drop off into nothingness forty feet behind him until his eyes met the horizon. It looked like a brownish tan expanse as far as the eye could see. The gulf between the end of the steel floor and the horizon was vast. He was definitely not going that way. Now he decided it would be a good time to check his slate message. There didn’t appear to be any real danger around him.

  You have reached level 8; you have one undistributed attribute point.

  Your familiar bond has increased by 5% to 45%.

  CJ immediately placed his new attribute point into Agility. Bringing it up to twenty points. Once he did that he received a new message.

  As the first Human to increase three or more of their attribute points to twenty since the return of mana, you have received the following bonuses: +5 points to each attribute below twenty, one uncommon item, and a new title.

  New Title Received: Overachiever- while this title is active add 5% more damage, 5% more spell range, or increase the number of targets by one with a spell or ability.

  Now that was a title he was happy to assign. Unfortunately, he could only have one active, and he was currently in a dungeon. Dungeon Diver would have to be his active title. The twenty percent greater chance to spot hidden details has been clutch in every dungeon so far. Five attribute points were added to his Strength, Wisdom, and Luck. Bringing two of them to fifteen and Luck to five. CJ all but felt swelling in his arms and legs as the changes took effect. While he didn’t hulk out there was definitely more definition to his limbs. He’d gone from a bean pole to store mannequin used to display underwear. A round box materialized at his feet. He assumed it was his uncommon item. He couldn’t wait to open it and find out what it was, but he was quickly brought back to the present by Monty.

  “What are we waiting for exactly?” asked Monty.

  “Sorry slate notifications and rewards. Gimme a sec.” replied CJ as he stroked his chin but decided to store the item box in his inventory before focusing back on his surroundings. Something about all of this seemed so familiar yet it wasn’t coming to his mind exactly what it was. “The objectives of this bolster dungeon were strange. The rewards were basic uncommon offerings which tells me the challenge level here shouldn’t be too difficult. It’s also pretty dark.”

  CJ looked around not seeing any stars in the sky. Just then a streak of light shot up into the heavens. It burst into multicolored light in a bell pattern against the black sky. That’s when the opposite side of the metal ground from the drop off lit up into smoldering orange and red light. There were long sections of muddy brown tubes layered across long iron rods. They immediately began to sizzle and writhe. In between the sections were small islands of beige ground. He absorbed all of these sights in an instant before slapping his hand to his forehead.

  “It’s a BBQ grill. Only it’s on a massive scale.” His mouth hung open before he continued, “Those writhing mounds are hot dogs the size of city buses. That means the islands are burger buns being toasted on the open grill. Shit that’s the only solid ground between this end of the grill and the other. We need to get moving before the whole thing is so hot we can’t cross it.”

  Monty’s eyes went wide at the realization that he needed to hop across the massive steel grating that was steadily rising in temperature. He could ask CJ to trigger big Monty, but he’d lose speed and distance being that big. CJ would be fine he could just flashport over to each bun. This was bad. Then something even worse happened.

  “CJ! Wait, don’t jump yet!” hollered Skipper as he came running toward them with a look of such hope mixed with relief on his face CJ was stunned. Monty on the other hand was having none of this.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  The rabbit ran to intercept the leader of the Flaming Pitchforks launching into the air with a flying kick that would make Bruce Lee jealous. Just as his rabbit’s foot hit Skipper center mass, the flames in the grill flared up washing CJ’s vision with more light as the shadows danced around the perfectly placed kick. Skipper went down like a date on prom night.

  “Monty stop! I want to hear what he has to say.”

  Monty was standing on the man’s chest with his left foot, right foot held in position to stomp the man’s head in. At CJ’s call to stop he looked back at him before lowering his right foot and hopping off the prone man to join CJ at his side.

  “Thanks for that. You’re rabbit packs a punch.” Coughed out Skipper as he got up to his knees.

  “I kicked you in your chest. I didn’t punch you.”

  “So, it was the rabbit talking to you in the hallway.” Said Skipper while sucking in deep breaths, “I think he broke one of my ribs.”

  “That’s his job. Was there something you wanted to say? Maybe apologize for my eye. Also, how are you in here at the same time as me? I thought these dungeons only allowed parties to enter together. I noticed your little horned friend isn’t with you.”

  “I’ll start with the eye. Apologies and he’s not my friend. You need to understand something, he can’t enter a dungeon. That’s why I signaled to you and am so glad you were smart enough to notice. I surrounded myself with thugs and idiots. I knew of all people who could figure it out, it’d be you. But you disappeared and I’ve been trapped in that office while the devil slowly took over my mind.”

  CJ couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Was Skipper the victim here?

  “You said the devil,” CJ highlighted incredulously, “What I saw was small and stood on your shoulder. I assumed the devil would be bigger.”

  “He’s the Jersey Devil. It’s taken all I had to keep control of the right side of my body, but in here I have full control again. I needed to get you in here so I could ask, no, beg you for your help. It wants to sacrifice everyone at the reservoir to grow more powerful. Please, you’ve got to help me fight it.”

  “I’ve got some bad news for you. There aren’t many people left.” CJ crossed his arms readying some cards just in case Skipper turned from pleading to violent. “While you’ve been held up fighting off the Jersey Devil, the cicada monsters have been picking off your soldiers and no phones. Whatever is left isn’t much more than the people hiding in the building.”

  “Fuck!” Skipper screamed. His eyes were wild with fear and self-loathing. He clutched at his own arms and looked like he was on the verge of tears.

  CJ had never seen this man so emotional before. Every time he’d met him in the past before the apocalypse, he was calm and collected. He never had to raise his voice about anything. Everything that’s happened to him in the last several months has evidently broken him. Also, he may have been possessed by a devil. Jury is still out on that one.

  “Calm down. You can’t do anything about it in here. When we get out of here we’ll help you deal with this devil but for now we need—” Monty interrupted him.

  “CJ, a word.”

  CJ and Monty stepped away from Skipper who was now rocking back in forth on his knees.

  “You don’t believe this shit do you? Offering to help him stop some devil which is a convenient excuse for all the harm that man has caused. Mind you once we get him out of here, which he still hasn’t explained, there’s still the matter of Sol’s people to contend with. You saw how angry Theo was when he learned you used to collaborate with these people. Imagine what he’ll do when you march their leader out in front of him.”

  “All good points. Let’s ask him about how he can be in here at the same time as us.” Another flare of light from the grilling landscape to their right reminded CJ that he’d probably need to hurry this up.

  “How were you able to enter this place at the same time as us? You haven’t fully explained that yet.”

  Skipper seemed to focus back up at CJ again before his mouth began to move without any sound coming out. He shook his head and tried again.

  “I received an additional message when I crossed the boundary. Something I’ve never seen before.”

  “Share the message with me. Just look at me and think share your slate.”

  You have failed to complete this dungeon over fifty times. Would you like to join a session in progress? Y/N

  “Fifty times? Why is that?”

  “In here is the only time I get to be wholly myself. Sometimes I run the grill just to get to the beer at the other end. I’ve never successfully completed the second trial. That pile of stuff you saw in the office, that’s all of the common items I get when the dungeon kicks me out.”

  “Even common items are slate active. Meaning they can give slate messages about their properties when held. Sometimes that’s all the difference necessary to defeat a monster. Believe me, I know.” CJ remembered fighting the demon wolf from the second dungeon. All our regular weapons did nothing. They needed some level of enchantment. He was sure even a common enchantment would work. “You said the dungeon kicks you out? That means there’s some kind of timer counting down in here. We better get moving. You’ve completed the grill challenge multiple times, right? So, you know the best way to cross this, supposing the design doesn’t change.”

  Skipper stood up and Monty took a fighting stance. Once he saw that he held his hands out palms up in a gesture of peace before walking toward the grills’ edge. Skipper pointed out towards the bun islands.

  “We need to go from bun to bun. The problem is if we get too close to the hotdogs they’ll attack.”

  “You realize what you just said was crazy right? They’re huge.”

  “You ever see the movie Dune?” asked Skipper before realization dawned on CJ’s face.