Wyn cursed as he cast Sprint and rushed to whatever trap John sprang. The monster – or trap, though he wasn’t entirely sure – was slinging John around like a wolf would shake its kill. John was still alive, though, screaming and yelling for help while his legs flailed and he punched the enemy in the head with his one free arm.

  Well, at least what he thought was the head. The thing was still a chest, though had a gaping mouth with viciously jagged teeth it was using to hold and bite John. He started glowing from a healing spell from Tasha, then summoned his sword to try and fight back.

  The large sword was basically useless due to the close proximity and John’s poor position, and he was swinging it wildly. A sickening crunch came from his side, and he screamed in pain. “Get it off me!”

  Wyn shifted his own summoned weapon into a poleaxe and swiped at one of its tall, thin legs. His hope was to chop it down like a tree, considering the creature’s ridiculously thin legs seemed unable to support it well. He felt resistance as the weapon struck it, the axe blade only cutting it. It was far denser and stronger than he assumed based on the lanky appendage.

  “Restrain it!” Wyn yelled, pulling back his poleaxe to cast Feeble. The spell was empowered by his item as a floating skull appeared above the chest, and it visibly shrank a foot. Cal was on its other side bashing the other leg with fervor, and two strong swings was enough to crack it like a sturdy column of wood.

  John fell from its mouth as the supposed monster yelped in pain. He rolled on the ground away from it as Tasha tended to him, leaving a significant bloody trail on the ground.

  In seconds the monster was overwhelmed with a sudden barrage of lightning and arrows, and once they paused Wyn and Cal resumed their own attacks. Wyn changed his weapon to a long-handled axe with a wide head as he began hacking away at the chest, splintering it with each strike. The monster was blackened from lightning and pierced with multiple arrows sunk halfway up their shafts, and continued to cry out as it was overcome.

  Even when the monster stopped moving Wyn continued to hack away at it, grunting with effort. Soon the chest was split in two, and the familiar black smoke emerged from the large corpse as it slowly disintegrated back into Alistair.

  “What in the actual fuck was that,” Marcy said, still holding her bow with the bowstring halfway pulled to her body.

  “How’s John?” Wyn asked, rushing over to where Tasha was healing him. He was still on the ground.

  “He’s okay,” Tasha said. “But the damned thing nearly took off his arm!”

  “Gods that was awful,” Cal said. He stared at the spot where the creature fell, still clutching his weapon with both hands.

  Instead of a pile of treasure, the body disappeared and formed into another chest against the wall. A chest of identical size and shape, with the same purple glow. The crystal floating above it brightened for a few seconds before giving off a final flash and disappearing.

  “I think that was a mimic,” Cedric said. He walked over to the chest, stopping several feet in front of it. He used his ethereal left arm to expand and inspect the wooden chest, tapping and touching all over to make sure it wasn’t another monster.

  “I’ve heard of those,” Cal said. “They’re supposedly rare but more common on the upper third tier and all of the fourth tier floors. What is it doing on the eighth floor?”

  “Don’t forget this is a secret room,” Wyn said. “The trap seemed made for a room on the third tier.”

  Marcy walked up beside Cedric and scowled. “I can’t believe my Hunter’s Gaze didn’t pick it up. I knew something was off but I thought it was the room or the crystal, not a trap like that. It didn’t even warn me of danger!”

  “It’s okay,” John said, sitting up. He rubbed his arm and side that was now healed while Tasha hugged him. “Lesson learned. My excitement got the better of me.”

  “I’ll be more alert next time,” Marcy said. “Secret rooms, corners, all of it. I’ll make sure of it.”

  Wyn wanted to remind them that they were pushing the higher floors, now, and that they needed to be alert at all times. But Marcy already admitted fault and John seemed okay. Marcy wasn’t the kind of person that responded well to constant criticism, and these weren’t soldiers at war. What they did was dangerous and they each had a responsibility to protect each other, but Marcy would be her own worst critic. Wyn already knew she was mentally berating herself for her error and would be better.

  “How about you see what we earned?” Wyn said, patting John on the shoulder.

  John nervously chuckled. “I think I’ve had enough excitement for now. I’ll let someone else open that chest, thank you.”

  Cedric stepped forward with Cal, and together they slowly opened the chest. Everyone else stood guard, ready to attack whatever might surface or appear.

  Instead, both Cedric and Cal cautiously peered into the chest, then both of their eyes widened. Cedric reached inside with his ethereal arm, still weary, and pulled out an item. He extended his arm in the form of a dark, cloudy tentacle wrapped around the item towards Marcy, whose cupped hands caught the item when dropped.

  The item was a folded bundle of cloth that Marcy quickly unfurled. It revealed to be a cloak with a small fastener at one end, completely plain and made of brown cloth.

  Except it was glowing with a purple aura.

  “There’s more, too!” Cal exclaimed, forgoing his caution and reaching deep inside the chest to pull out more items. He held a blue glowing potion in one hand and a handful of small items in the other. “There’s a blue rarity ring in here! And these gems are huge!”

  “That’s not all,” Cedric said, reaching inside with both arms. “At least a dozen more gems and mounds of coins!”

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  The others rushed to the chest and began to pluck out the rewards quickly, nearly forgetting John’s brush with the mimic. It took several minutes for them to completely empty the chest of items.

  The six of them stood, staring at the pile of items like they had just been given a royal sum from a king. There were easily several thousand coins, which were a mixture of gold crowns and silver cloaks. Nearly two dozen fine gems of various kinds, of which the smallest was the size of Wyn’s thumbnail and the largest was the size of a small piece of fruit, were set off to the side in a neat but glimmering pile.

  And their best find, besides the cloak, ring, and potions, was an additional magic item that none of them had found before. Wyn held it with slightly shaking hands as it glowed blue.

  It was a piece of magical parchment with a spell already highlighted and defined.

  Snow Swarm – Aquamarine Magician, tier two. Manifest a wide blizzard of dense snow and ice, obscuring sight while creating a constant barrage of ice elemental magic. The snow and ice damages enemies at a moderate amount while increasing damage the longer it remains on an affected enemy. Surfaces have a chance to be iced over. Lasts two minutes and costs a moderate amount of mana. The caster may move the swarm at will, swarm move speed is moderate.

  *Ruby Tactician effect: enemies under the effect of the Swarm will be slowed and possibly frozen. Blunt damage against affected enemies is moderately increased.

  Spell copies remaining: 4.

  “A damn spell,” Cedric said, his voice shaky. “And with four remaining uses! That could be worth a fortune!”

  “Then we should decide on the best use of it,” Wyn said. “Which we can do after we clear the floor.”

  Wyn was ecstatic at the find of the spell, even more so than the items. While any magical items were great, along with the find of so much wealth with the coins and gems, they still paled in comparison to something as unique and rare as a genuine spell that no other class had. He didn’t blame Cedric’s excitement and wanted to take a break to talk about it then and there, but knew after their current climb it would be better in a safe space.

  When they were still in the Twilight Blades, there were a few pages of spells in the guild vault, but they never had the opportunity to use them. Spell pages had limited uses, listed as copies on the original. How they worked was a Climber would copy the spell into their own parchment, able to be used or at least stored to use at a later time. The spell was grafted to their unique class mark, and then the original spell page lost one of the copies available.

  Each of the four spells in the guild vault only had one or two uses remaining after the other groups took their uses. It was such a high prize that it wasn’t available for just a simple rarity exchange, but instead required them to have explicit approval to use, which were rewarded for various reasons. No one in Wyn’s group ever received the approval, so they could only admire the pages from afar.

  Now, though, they had one of their very own.

  For Snow Swarm, Wyn could immediately see how useful it could be for both environmental control and damaging multiple enemies. He had three tier two slots for spells, and it would increase his ability to manipulate enemies.

  But it would need to be a group discussion if he took it. Like Cedric said, pages from the tower were incredibly valuable. They could likely trade it for a couple of pieces of a purple rarity set, or even flat out sell it for a fortune, which wasn’t something to ignore.

  Finishing out the floor was relatively straightforward, and the boss wasn’t difficult for the six of them. It was a queen ant the size of two wagons back to back that summoned other ants during the fight. It had a magical acidic attack on top of an already tough exoskeleton, which John and Cal handled with ease after it was weakened from Wyn’s Feeble while Tasha protected them from the acid. The other three dealt with the minions with a similar difficulty, manageable from Marcy’s and Wyn’s traps and ranged effectiveness of Marcy and Cedric. Wyn was able to kill any ant that came close with his speed as well.

  After killing likely hundreds of ants for the floor and several dozen alone during the boss fight, they were rewarded with meager copper boots and a single blue rarity shield.

  At least the other rewards made the climb worth it.

  Back at their house, the six laid out their items to identify.

  Cloak of Mimicry – This cloak was shed from a Mimic and retained its functionality. It allows the wearer to change shape into another creature for 1 hour a day, able to use at one time or spread in minute increments. The desired shape must be of a similar size to the wearer. The wearer obtains physical traits of the new creature. Provides moderate protection from magical attacks.

  Chitin Shield – This tough kite shield provides major protection from all physical attacks and minor protection from magical attacks. Due to its light nature, it can be wielded by classes that normally don’t allow the use of shields.

  Ring of Camouflage – This ring allows the user to have the skill Cloak at tier two for one hour per day, able to use at one time or spread in minute increments. Improves agility and overall dexterity by a minor amount.

  *Cloak: Mask your features to greatly blend in with the environment. When still, become nearly impossible to detect by physical and magical senses with a major shroud effect. When moving, effect is diminished to a more than minor shroud effect.

  Potent Ability Elixir – Once consumed, the potency and effect of all abilities used for the next five minutes are doubled without change to mana cost or time to activate. Once the time has passed, those abilities become dormant, unable to be used for the next hour.

  Belt of the Worker Ant – All pouches and items secured to this belt are unable to be removed without the wearer’s permission and are protected from harm. Items can be magically attached to this belt without need for straps, buckles, or other means of securement. Improves the wearer’s endurance by a moderate amount and reduces the cost of skills by a minor amount.

  Gauntlets of Ant Strength – Made of a similar chitin as the hard exterior of the Stone Ant, these gauntlets give the wielder a moderate passive strength increase when using either hand to perform a task. They also give the user the Punch ability to be used four times per day.

  *Punch: Using your fists to strike, your hand and arm is protected from harm while your strength is tripled. When attacking a solid object, whether physical or magical, the effect is increased.

  John was holding one of the gauntlets in one hand and the kite shield in the other. He was looking between them with disgust. “These have interesting effects, but gods they are ugly.”

  The gauntlets were bulky and brown, with harsh intersecting joints at the fingers and ridges that made it look like it was created directly from an ant. The shield was the size of a normal kite shield, but it was a combination of green and brown, like soil and grass, and protruded awkwardly from the middle.

  “Some mages won’t care if it’s ugly if it means they can use a shield,” Cedric said. “That effect of being able to be used even though the class won’t allow shields is incredible. I’m not sure if I’ve heard of an item that does that.”

  “Same with the mimic cloak,” Marcy said. “An item that lets you actually shapeshift and keep the creature’s physicality? That’s ridiculous! Imagine shifting into a small dragon then flying around biting and clawing monsters! You’d be a terror!”

  “They are certainly interesting,” Wyn said. “I wonder if we should keep them or trade them?”

  “Definitely keep,” Tasha said. “Finding new effects like these is rare, and we shouldn’t just get rid of them so fast. If we held onto them, we could either trade with our future guild mates or try our luck with some reputable contacts like Benedict.”

  Wyn thought that was an excellent suggestion, knowing it would go well towards their new guild’s items and stock. They weren’t necessarily looking to be attractive to new Climbers, but having a guild vault was still a good idea. It meant the other groups could contribute to it, too, and having every team be tier three Climbers meant plenty of high rarity items.

  They continued their discussion of the items as the night went on, ultimately deciding to keep the potion to use for a difficult floor boss and giving Marcy the ring. It made too much sense not to use for her skillset. The shield was another point of discussion as either Tasha or Cedric could use it, but both decided against it. They liked their climbing style already and using a shield would be a considerable change. The item was also a bit weak for blue rarity only having one true effect, even though the effect was helpful for mages.

  Worst of all, the shield was just plain ugly.

  The six Climbers settled down for the night before deciding to push into the third tier the next day. Wyn guessed it would be easier than last time but figured they would have heard rumors about the season’s difficulty at this point if there was an enemy as strong as a dragon.

  Wyn settled into his bed for the night, eager for his group’s continued progress. He hoped to find at least one other stone tablet before the season ended, both to figure out the final puzzle and to prevent the Faceless Four from obtaining them first.

  Knowing they had a stone tablet meant two possibilities, something the group had discussed. And one of which burdened him. One possibility was that there was more than one set of the stone tablet puzzle, meaning there would be enough of the items for multiple completions. That meant they could leave the Faceless Four alone and it would be a race to finish. Not ideal, but not terribly bad.

  The second and worse possibility was that there was a finite amount of stone tablets, meaning the Faceless Four had one of the pieces that would be needed to complete the single puzzle. And obtaining that meant either trading with the masked group or taking it from them.

  That was not something Wyn wanted to do. But the tablets drew him in like a moth to a flame, and he knew there was a significance behind them. Like the others, he wanted to find out what it was, and that meant continuing to find them in Alistair.

  Trying to calm his mind, Wyn attempted to calm himself before turning in for the night.

  It didn’t work as he settled for a fitful night’s sleep.

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