“You killed him!”

  I blinked, and suddenly Rounin was straddling Janus’ chest, fist raised to punch him. Icarus and Penelope attempted to pry him off, but shimmering threads wrapped around their ankles, yanking them off balance.

  “What’s…happening?” I asked.

  Icarus’ head whipped around, relief taking over his face. “Yule! Oh, thank God, I thought you were dead and gone—“

  “Yule!’ Rounin practically shrieked, pushing Icarus out of his way as he tackled me into a hug.

  It wasn’t until I felt damp spots forming on my t-shirt that I realized he was crying.

  “Hey, are you okay? Rounin, what’s wrong?” I asked, both petting his hair and trying to get him to show me his face.

  Icarus grimaced. “You disappeared when Janus turned the cube. Didn’t come back until I solved this, but we spent a while toying with combinations, trying to get you back. Rounin lost his mind for a while there.”

  Janus was still sitting on the floor, shaking. “Did I just almost die?”

  “I was so worried!” Rounin sniffled, still not letting me look at his face.

  “I’m, uh, I’m sorry?” I attempted, giving up and letting him cry it out.

  I squinted at Penelope, who had one hand elegantly covering her mouth as she shook. “Are you laughing or crying?”

  A laugh slipped out. Penelope attempted to cover it with a cough. “Neither, Yule, I’m just awfully relieved…Sorry, I can’t, Janus’ face—“

  We stood there in silence while Rounin recovered from what was possibly the worst emotional shock he’d had in a while.

  “Okay. Okay, I’m good,” Rounin declared, wiping his eyes one last time. “Oh…Yule, your shirt—“

  “Hm. It’s fine. We should go. What’s next?”

  Janus pointed to my left. “It’s a puzzle.”

  I stared at the indicated puzzle for a moment, trying to make sense of it. “That’s two sheep and a wolf tied to a pole and a boat that is clearly too small for them, next to a river that starts nowhere and ends nowhere.”

  “Judging from the sign on the other side of the river, we’re supposed to get all three animals across safely.” Icarus points.

  I squinted, trying to make out anything on the sign. It looked blank from here.

  “You can see that far?” Penelope asked, eyes widening. “Are you a fucking bird?”

  “Yeah. Well, no, I’m not a bird— actually, I guess I do have wings, but— never mind. Okay, no problem, let’s just row the boat across—“

  As Icarus stepped over an invisible threshold, a translucent blue force field popped up between us and him.

  Penelope banged on the wall with her fist. “Icarus? Icarus!”

  He didn’t react. It must have been soundproof. When she tried teleporting, she appeared in the same place as before.

  Icarus noticed a couple of moments later that we weren’t behind him, turning in confusion.

  His eyes widened when he noticed the forcefield, his steps pausing.

  “Uh…what are we even supposed to do?” Janus asked.

  “Maybe once we solve the puzzle, the forcefield dissipates, like how Yule came back once we figured out the Rubik’s Cube,” Rounin suggested.

  “We can’t communicate, though. So it’s up to him,” Penelope pointed out, starting to shuffle nervously and shift her weight from foot to foot.

  We watched Icarus flounder around for a moment.

  “…what is he…doing, exactly?”

  “Can someone tell him there’s technically no time limit, but we do still need food and water?” Penelope asked.

  “Who’s the best at Charades?” Janus joked weakly.

  Penelope frowned at him. “I do not see how this is relevant information.”

  “Because we need to gesture to him the information?” I said slowly, not quite understanding the communication gap.

  “It’s a game we have in our world,” Rounin said absently. “Where one person uses movements alone to convey to a group a certain word or phrase until someone gets it.”

  “Ohhh.” Penelope nodded. “Sounds fun.”

  Right. The whole Otherworldly thing.

  “Hm. We can play when we get out of here,” I suggested. “Pass the time between Challenges.”

  “If we get out of here,” Janus mumbled.

  A loud beep was heard, and Icarus was flung past us, out of the forcefield, and smacked into a wall.

  “I’m good! I’m okay!” He promised, getting back up. “Okay, I’ve somewhat figured stuff out! So you can only take one animal across at a time. But when I took one of the sheep across the river, the wolf ate the other one. Then it threw me out. But look! It’s reset!”

  “Okay, so, you’d have to bring the wolf first,” Janus noted.

  “Yeah, but then you’d have to leave it alone with the sheep on the other side of the river…”

  “Shep,” Penelope corrected.

  We all stared at her.

  “…Are your singular and plural the same for sheep…?”

  “Yeah?” Janus mumbled.

  “…But like, goose geese? Moose, meese?”

  “Meese?” Icarus said slowly.

  “No, but she should be right—“ Rounin started.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  I clapped a hand over his mouth before he could start. As much as I liked watching him talk, we didn’t have time for this. “Rounin. On task.”

  “Yes, yes. Uh, so…the sheep.” Rounin gestured at the three animals.

  “No matter what order you bring them in, one sheep gets eaten,” Janus mused.

  “Okay, so we’re thinking outside the box. Maybe Icarus can fly both sheep across?” Penelope suggested.

  “No way, dude. Those things are heavier than your average American, and that’s saying a lot.” Icarus made an X with his hands.

  “…American?” Penelope asked.

  Rounin waved a hand dismissively. “It’s a nationality. Each shep weighs from a hundred to three hundred pounds…”

  “Are you going to keep saying shep?” I asked, trying to decide if I was exasperated or amused.

  “Yes. As I said, that’s a total weight of anywhere from two to six hundred. Too heavy for my ropes.”

  “Pounds?” Penelope asked again.

  “Unit of measurement. Can you teleport them?” Rounin turned to Penelope.

  “Nah, did you see how the force field wouldn’t let her through? We’re probably supposed to solve this through brain alone,” Janus interjected. “Maybe there’s something hidden around here we can use to improve the boat—“

  “You can just kill the wolf,” I suggested. “Does it have to be alive?”

  All four of them turned to stare at me.

  “That’s cruel,” Icarus protested.

  Whatever. I just spent three days in a forest with wolves. They kept trying to eat me. It was only fair that I return the favor.

  Then again, I was obviously uneaten, and I had subsisted on wolf meat for several days now.

  “No, no, he’s on the right track. We could just knock the wolf out instead of killing it. Is that okay?” Penelope asked.

  “I can just tie it up,” Rounin suggested.

  “No skills, remember?” Janus reminded him.

  “Crap, you’re right!” Rounin facepalmed. “Uh, no, it’s fine. I have a rope ladder in my Inventory. I can just tie it up with it if I take it apart.”

  “Okay, then you should probably go and do it, in that case,” Icarus suggested.

  I had a sudden vision of Rounin being mauled by a wolf.

  “I have more experience with wolves than him. Let me.”

  “Nah, I’ve been hunting wolves since I was a kid,” Penelope reassured me, patting my shoulder. “I’ll do it.”

  As soon as Rounin had finished slicing up the rope ladder, Penelope stepped across the barrier.

  It was almost too fast to see.

  One moment she was slowly approaching the wolf, and the next she was pulling it taut around its legs, finishing up the knot with a quick tug. It was purely superhuman.

  Then again. Most humans couldn’t create ice with little more than a mental push.

  Icarus applauded, nodding, then remembered she couldn’t hear it and gave her a thumbs up instead.

  Penelope gave an exaggerated stage bow in response, taking off an invisible hat.

  She tossed the wolf into the boat first, then got the other two sheep. As soon as the second sheep’s hoof touched the other side of the river, the forcefield vanished.

  “How do you move that fast?” Rounin said in amazement.

  Penelope grinned, helping him and Janus step into the boat and rowing them both across. “A bit of help from my Skill, and a lot of training since I was little.”

  Icarus shook his head in amazement. “I wanna be you when I grow up.”

  Penelope scoffed, rolling her eyes. “Oh, please. You have wings. You fly. The amount of time humans spend reaching for the sky…”

  “Can’t you teleport into the air?” I asked, recalling her dropping from the ceiling during the second Challenge.

  “No. I can only teleport while touching a solid object or the ground, and to a solid object or something touching the ground. It’s a major weakness, because if I fall or am otherwise launched into the air, I can’t just teleport myself back to solid ground,” Penelope explained, gesturing Icarus and me into the boat.

  “Hey,” Janus said suddenly. “We could have just. Brought the wolf. Then one sheep. Then bring the wolf back across the river. And gotten the other sheep.”

  “Hm. I could have just frozen the river,” I said thoughtfully.

  “Aren’t we supposed to solve the puzzle without skills?” Icarus questioned. “Wait, then why does Penelope’s speed boost work but not her teleportation?”

  “I’ve always had a speed boost. The teleportation was from the Challenges,” Penelope clarified. “

  The new puzzle appeared as soon as Penelope stepped off the boat.

  Four thin tan disks sat on raised pedestals, each the size of my palm. They all had different shapes indented in the tops— a circle, a star, a square, and an umbrella. A needle sat beside each one.

  “What is that?” Icarus said, puzzled.

  “That’s dalgona candy, no?” Rounin asked, nudging me. “The one with sugar and baking soda?”

  I squinted at it. “The dalgona I’ve made in the past did not look like that.”

  “Yeah, your dalgona was kind of ugly…”

  “You’re the one who wanted it in your coffee, you could have just made it yourself—“

  “I tried! Three times!”

  “Uh— wait, isn’t this a scene from Squid Game?” Janus interrupted.

  “Your squids are intelligent enough to play games?” The Otherworldly woman asked.

  “It’s a show,” Icarus explained. “Never actually watched it. Is it good?”

  “Yes,” Rounin said, contemplating. “The main character picked an umbrella, yes?”

  “Yeah, so we should pick the umbrella,” Janus reasoned.

  “No, that almost screwed him over. We should pick the square,” Rounin protested.

  Janus frowned. “But if it’s specifically a pop culture reference—“

  “Do you want to try cutting that thing out of candy? Because I don’t!” Icarus protested. “I’ve played these games before! I am shit at them!”

  Rounin groaned. “We should learn from mistakes, no?”

  “Yeah, I agree, but in this case, we might not actually have to cut it out—“ Janus protested.

  “Vote! Let’s vote,” Icarus interjected hurriedly, seeing the tensions building.

  Come to think of it, Rounin and Janus did seem like they’d gotten violent while I was gone earlier.

  “Okay. I say let’s pick the square,” Icarus said uneasily.

  “It can’t be that difficult. Umbrella…whatever that is.” Penelope shrugged.

  “Yule?” My best friend said expectantly.

  “Hm. I don’t remember the show very well…” I mumbled, trying to make my decision. On one hand, I had worked with dalgona candy before. It was disgustingly hard to break nicely.

  On the other hand, Janus might be right about the correct choice being the one the main character picked.

  “Maybe we have four chances,” Icarus suggested. “Like, we can fail the others, but as long as we get one right…?”

  “Oh, come on!’ Janus groaned, picking up the needle for the umbrella.

  The other three pedestals sank into the ground.

  “Okay, maybe not,” Icarus mumbled.

  A slip of paper appeared next to the candy, like the paper Janus had been holding during the door puzzle.

  “…cut out your chosen shape. Do not break it or you will be penalized…?” Janus mumbled. “That’s okay, we’ll just lick the bottom like—“

  He trailed off as he tried to pick the candy up. It seemed to be stuck on there.

  “Oh, my gosh!” Rounin groaned. “Give me the needle. Please.”

  Janus relented, handing it over.

  Rounin started chipping away at the candy.

  A three-minute timer started in front of his face.

  “Oh, oh dear, oh dear, that’s very much not good,” Rounin mumbled, starting to chip faster.

  After about two minutes, Janus groaned and snatched the needle away. “You’re only halfway through, and we only have one more minute. You’re too slow. Let me.”

  He touched the needle to the candy, which immediately broke off at the handle.

  “Fuck!”

  “Maybe I was slow for a reason! Did you consider that?!”

  “You know, that I think about it, this probably wasn’t a pop culture reference,” Janus admitted faintly, swaying slightly. “There was no square. It was a triangle.”

  Rounin dropped his face into his hands.

  “Gods,” Penelope mumbled, looking to the sky like they might actually help her.

  Another piece of paper appeared on top of the broken candy.

  Janus read it out loud. “…penalty incurred. Calibrated boss battle occurring?!”

  “What the fuck is that?!” Icarus shouted, pointing over my shoulder.

  I turned around, pushing Rounin behind me. “Excellent question.”

  How to even begin describing it?

  It was a huge, vaguely cube-shaped floating amalgamation of a million different things. I could see animals like goats and snakes writhing in the shifting, swirling mass of everything ranging from couches to carrots.

  [Corripio Lv.9]

  In other words, I had made a mistake by volunteering. Rounin was right. Volunteering for things that may potentially kill oneself is something a main character would do, and I had no intention of being anything adjacent to a main character. The main characters of webnovels in this genre do not lead happy lives. They die a lot. Their best friends die a lot. These were things I wanted to avoid if possible.

  “Nine! The fuck?!” Icarus shouted. “That’s worse than the cetus!”

  “Hm. You killed the cetus,” I reminded him.

  “Oh, believe me, only because you rendered it helpless with that ice trick.” Icarus’ wings sprang from his back, audibly tearing his shirt even more.

  “No worries. I’ve fought these before,” Penelope said calmly. “We just need to get through to the core. Destroy the core, and the whole thing goes. Icarus, help me get in close. Rounin and Yule, I’d like you to restrain it once it shows itself. Janus, summarize skill set, five words or less.”

  “Shapeshift.”

  “…useless at the moment. Helpful later, potentially. Yule and Rounin, watch him.”

  “Wait,” Icarus protested. “What do you mean, shows itself?”

  “Oh, you’ll see,” Penelope promised, her jaw setting. “On three.”

  I pulled my dagger out of my inventory, and Rounin readied threads in the corner of my eye.

  “Two, one, go.”