Church bells rang in the distance.

  I’d never been the most into Church. None of us had, really, but Cozad’s bells had rang at noon every day whether we were in town or not, and they were a good indicator that lunchtime was coming up at school. The teachers knew, even if they refused to admit it, that every single kid lost every shred of focus when the bells sounded. We might still have half an hour of class, but work was no longer getting done.

  Their rhythm formed a pretty melody, unlike these. These ones sounded more like the ringer was pulling the ropes as fast as he could, with no thought for how the final piece would sound.

  Then, as quickly as they’d started ringing, they stopped, their tones hanging in the air.

  I opened my eyes to see a fifteen-year-old girl glaring down at me. “You good?” Tori asked.

  My head rolled to the side; the pool I’d landed in was pink, and trails of blood swirled inside it; so did a handful of tiny glass vials, the largest no bigger than a hundred-millimeter flask from chemistry.

  Surprisingly, I felt great. The fuzziness was completely gone, and even though my arm hurt, one look at the skin under my Autoplate Pauldron was enough to know that the poison had been, if not completely neutralized, at least pushed back. “You stole the potions, didn’t you?” I asked.

  “I mean, yeah. I left the fanny pack, though. You don’t just leave perfectly good loot behind unless you have to,” Tori said defensively.

  “Do you know what you gave me?”

  She shrugged, looking down at the cave floor. “Uh…”

  “What did you give me?” I asked, growing a little worried.

  “Everything.”

  “Everything?” That explained why I felt so great. I checked my Status Screen in case there was a hint there.

  There was.

  Temporary Buffs

  ?Quick Healing (15 Seconds)

  ?Improved Spellcasting (2 Minutes, 5 Seconds)

  ?Iron Body (1 minute, 55 Seconds)

  ?Bear’s Might (35 Seconds)

  ?Water Breathing (15 Minutes, 15 Seconds)

  I pushed myself to my feet and headed toward the bells-and-screaming sound of Bobby punching the Howling Moray. On the one hand, Tori had saved my life. On the other, she’d definitely stolen from Leana, and she’d also wasted at least two of those potions on me—maybe three.

  After a second’s consideration, I decided she’d made the right call and threw myself into the fight against the Floor One Boss.

  The Howling Moray was patient.

  When it had filled itself to bursting on the endless tide of sharks, it had simply stopped fighting them, retreating into its tunnels where they couldn’t follow and waiting until they left. It had no reason to risk injury—not when there was plenty of other food, and not when it was only a matter of time before other prey arrived in its home.

  It had been rewarded as the two warm, gillless ones stumbled into its caves. It had attacked the one, dragging it into its lair and filling the air with piteous screams. Not all of them were fake; the tiny creature screamed almost as much as it did. Then, when that one died, it had repeated the trick with the second. The Howling Moray had been pleased. Its new ability to breathe both air and water gave it untold advantages, and it had feasted well on the poison-created slurry left behind.

  In fact, it was so pleased, so content, that it almost didn’t attack the group of three warm, gillless ones. But in the end, the Howling Moray was not as patient as it was greedy.

  If it could have, it would have regretted its impatience.

  Instead, it was furious—and a little cautious. Not afraid. Not that far, not yet. But furious and cautious. Its prey had escaped from its larder, reunited with its school, and somehow stopped both its jagged teeth and the poison within them from killing it.

  And now a different prey was acting like a predator, attacking into the Howling Moray’s bulk like it could actually hurt it. And worse, it could.

  The blows barely stung, like swimming through an anemone, but there were so many of them, and they left numb spots across the gigantic eel’s side. It whipped around, howling, and stormed for the injured prey and the smaller one.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  They were both up. A bright light shone in the Howling Moray’s eye.

  And something hit it square in the face.

  How? It wasn’t close. None of the gillless prey were close! It sucked in air through its mouth, howling and tasting blood, and turned tail, fleeing through the tunnels.

  The Howling Moray was patient, and its prey would let down their guard sooner or later.

  I was on a timer.

  Leana’s Quick Healing potion had just expired, but the Iron Body one was keeping me stable. Tori had pulled the final fangs out of my arm, and I didn’t know if I’d start bleeding again when Iron Body’s effect stopped, or if the poison would keep flowing.

  That meant we had one minute and twenty seconds to track down the Howling Moray, plus however long I had before the Venom and Hemorrhage debuffs killed me.

  It was bleeding, though. My rail gun shot had punched clean through its nose and deep into the flesh behind, and as we ran after it, the trail of blood kept us on track—even without the Rose-Tinted Compass. But even without that, I knew exactly where it was going. It would retreat to the only place big enough for it to wait.

  It was heading for its feeding cave, and if it went there, we’d have to be smart to keep it pinned.

  “Tori, it’s going to a room with a lot of exits. My hammer’s there. When it gets there, just keep it pinned down,” I said. “Push or Pull it away from the tunnels, and keep it on the ground as much as you can.”

  “Got it,” Tori said. Her low Body points were showing; she was already breathing hard, and we’d only been running for thirty seconds or so.

  Bobby was well ahead; in spite of his Body being low, too, his Awareness let him push without worrying about tripping and falling. It didn’t help that I wasn’t at one hundred percent, either. But I didn’t need to get into the fight to make a difference—which was good. My hammer was in the pit, and there was a real chance it’d need some repairs after my escape.

  Stored Charge 9/15

  I’d get one shot, but by the time I got there, Bobby should have weak spots open all over the boss.

  I put my head down and kept running, letting Tori pull ahead.

  By the time we got back to the feeding cave, Bobby was already there, but he hadn’t jumped in yet. The second he saw Tori, he leaped into the pit, landing next to a human ribcage and immediately rushing the Howling Moray. Its long, yellow-green body thrashed, and its jaws snapped shut. A half-dozen new weak spots appeared as bells rang. I tried to line up a shot.

  Before I could, the Howling Moray lunged for a cave far away from us—only to be jerked back into the pit with an almost human scream. Tori’s grunt of exertion told me exactly what had happened; she’d Pulled the boss. I relaxed; we had it cornered, and it was only a matter of time.

  ?Iron Body (21 Seconds)

  That’d be plenty. I just needed…

  Bobby’s fist bounced off the Howling Moray’s face, just over its jaw and just below the spot my first rail gun bolt had hit. I took aim. “Tori, Gravity W—“

  I didn’t need to finish. She cast Gravity Well, locking the massive eel to the ground for a crucial couple of seconds. I fired the rail gun. It punched into the boss’s face, disintegrating bone and teeth as it passed through the mouth and out the back of its skull. It screamed, and this time, it sounded nothing like a human cry—but it was full of agony.

  It stopped before its head bounced off the stone.

  Boss Defeated: The Howling Moray

  Level Up! Forty-Eight to Forty-Nine

  Dungeon Delvers who were not in the arena will receive fifty percent of your team’s experience.

  Area Message: The Watery Grave’s second floor has unlocked. This floor will remain unlocked for twenty-four hours, after which time the first floor will reset.

  I put my points in Body as the Iron Body potion ran out; the healing braced my veins against the Venom, and the puncture wounds stung as they pulled tight. Tori hit the bottom of the cave a moment later, heading for the loot. “I get first dibs!” she shouted.

  I nodded. It was her turn, after all.

  Tome of Contingent Cast (Rare)

  User learns the spell Contingent Cast, which allows the caster to set triggers for other spells to automatically cast. Up to the user’s Mana/20 Contingent Casts can be set, and each lasts for twenty-four hours. Each Contingent Cast requires one minute to set. The tome remains intact, but loses its ability to transfer magic after use.

  Tome of Iron Body (Uncommon)

  User learns the spell Iron Body, which slightly increases resistance to blunt and slashing damage, slightly reduces damage from poisons, and allows the target to resist pressure of up to ten atmospheres for three minutes. The tome remains intact, but loses its ability to transfer magic after use.

  I had my eye on the Tome of Contingent Cast from the moment the System message told me what it was, but really, both of these should have been Tori’s. I had no spellcasting, and Bobby shook his head, looking disappointed in the loot choices. They also weren’t thematic—or at least, were only vaguely thematic—to the dungeon.

  So, naturally, she took it and learned the spell immediately. She sat down and started weaving her Contingent Casts—she’d get at least two, and possibly as many as four. I kind of regretted not keeping track of her point use, but I doubted she’d have told me anyway. Either way, I was curious how the spell worked. I hadn’t made a big deal out of it, but I had an idea, and it revolved around the Spellcode Scroll Reader I’d picked up from the Rank Two Voltsmithing box in Soldier Field.

  I still hadn’t seen a Spellcode Scroll, and I also hadn’t seen anyone who could make one, but if Alchemist was a class, then maybe…

  “Tori, is there a scroll-making class in any of your games?” I asked.

  “Oh yeah, a lot of games have them, but they’re usually pretty underpowered. I only pick it as a profession on, like, my fourth or fifth alt. Why?” Tori was busy, but apparently, not too busy to respond.

  We were beat to hell after the two boss fights—not physically, but mentally. I needed to take a breather, and as much as would probably hate the idea, Bobby clearly did, too.

  “No reason. Why don’t you two see if any of the bodies in here have any identification? We should give them a proper send-off. Then we’ll camp here for a few hours and finish the dungeon in the morning. It should be safe enough.” I picked up the Tome of Iron Body and pulled my Voltsmithing equipment out; I didn’t have everything, and I’d rather have been doing this in my workshop, but the inventory was pretty powerful. I set out my tools and got to work.

  It was time to figure out Spellcodes.

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