As Adon stared out into the burnt orange gloom of the third level, he took in all the details he could and continued formulating his game plan.

  He could see a small oval of the space around the entrance, which appeared to come out at ground level on the new floor. At least Adon could not see any sudden drop in elevation, only a wall roughly ten feet away and the ceiling and floor in between.

  Assuming that the oval in his view was representative, this level appeared much smaller in comparison with the last. The roof was set just slightly higher than a typical human’s height, around seven feet up. The cave walls were narrowly spaced such that only four or five people would be able to move abreast.

  And, of course, that was assuming that most of the ground was actually passable.

  In fact, a path of solid rock—wide enough for two people to cross it abreast—extended out from the floor’s entrance to a narrow landing that grew wider at the edges of Adon’s oval. He guessed the ground might be mostly stone outside of the oval that he could see without entering. But on either side of that small path, there were large pools of magma.

  Adon could feel the heat radiating from the orange liquid. The air was boiling hot, and if he was in human form, he would have been pouring sweat. In insect form, he couldn’t even do that, so he used small amounts of mana spread throughout his body to minimize his vulnerability to the heat.

  Despite his skillful application of mana, his health was slowly falling as he stood looking around. It was too slow to be a significant issue—he expected he could have gotten through the entire floor without running out, assuming it was not more than a few miles long, which seemed logical given the previous floors.

  But if he had to actually fight in this place, that would be another drain on his mana. Adon’s natural mana regeneration would be severely diminished by the requirement that he continually fortify himself against this heat—which was terrible even at the entrance.

  I could see myself burning to a crisp in here if I’m not careful, Adon thought. Even if there’s nothing on this level that poses a threat physically…

  Despite the heat, his mind was cool and clinical. Unlike the matters of royal politics, romance, and even military affairs, exploring unfamiliar environments and fighting unexpected enemies was his bread and butter. Almost his comfort zone. He understood the assignment perfectly. Though Adon naturally hoped that Rosslyn would awaken soon, he was also looking forward to scouting this place for the group and then subsequently fighting their way through it.

  The butterfly continued scanning the environment with his visual and auditory senses.

  The dim orange light that illuminated the level from above looked to originate from cracks in the ceiling through which something—Adon guessed magma—gently gleamed.

  Is that cracked stone stable? he wondered. If there was a flood on this floor, as there had been on the last one, but the flood was of molten magma instead of water, Adon did not imagine that any members of the expedition would survive that. Is the dungeon able to be that unbalanced?

  The stability of the environment was one of the things he would have to pay particular attention to when and if he scouted later.

  But as his eyes returned to the dark stone of the far wall, Adon could not think of much else that he could do just now. He knew what the opening to level three looked like, sounded like—a gentle simmering noise—smelled like—brimstone—and that it felt hot as anywhere else he had ever been.

  It was time to return to the group and rest for the evening. Or what he imagined was the evening. He would need his resources for this level far more than he had for the last.

  As he was thinking that, however, Adon realized that he felt something with his other sense. The butterfly focused his mind and carefully confirmed it. His vision was hazy for a moment as his mind lasered in on a single thing.

  Yes… Actually, he had found two things.

  They were subtle, but once spotted, it was obvious they were there.

  Two minds… but they haven’t moved the whole time I’ve been sitting here watching.

  The two minds were not thinking anything in particular. They might have been asleep—or perhaps more accurately dormant, waiting for some enemy to enter their domain.

  As for the unknown creatures’ locations, initially he only recognized that they were below him, but gradually Adon was able to narrow it down. He just had to move slightly and continue receiving the signal in order to triangulate their locations.

  He discerned that both inactive life forms were located within the magma pools that stood on either side of the path.

  A perfect ambush position if the group entered unwary.

  Well, that confirms something I could have guessed already; everything that lives on this floor will be heat resistant.

  That also meant that Adon’s most potent offensive abilities—the fire magic that he had learned from Rosslyn and the mana ball that he had used to burn through many enemies in the past—would probably be useless here.

  The longer I look at this floor, the more nervous it makes me.

  Adon wasn’t quite afraid. At some point, his threshold to be afraid of physical dangers had risen.

  And his plan to handle this level had not radically changed.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  The butterfly fluttered back to the group and found a place to rest alongside the spiders, who had taken up positions near Rosslyn’s sleeping form. On the way, he passed four knights, two facing in each direction up and down the tunnel, standing guard.

  It seemed the group really was settling in to rest for the night.

  Did you discover anything interesting? Goldie asked when Adon landed.

  I did, Adon replied. I think this level will be even more trouble than the last one. The only big thing to mention right now, though, is that there are monsters hidden in the pools of magma right next to the entrance. So whenever the group enters the level, the first people in will probably get ambushed immediately…

  What if we…? Samson began.

  There was a back and forth among the arthropods that lasted for a quarter of an hour before they all agreed that it would be better to try and solve this problem after Adon had scouted the dungeon a bit further. Then they gradually allowed themselves to turn inactive for the night. The very last thing Adon did, before he went into quiescence, was deactivate Telepathy.

  The butterfly remained still for an unknown number of hours.

  The next thing Adon knew, he was being gently prodded awake.

  “I did not even know that insects could sleep,” a voice murmured.

  It took only a moment for Adon’s head to clear enough to recognize that it was Frederick speaking. Adon activated Telepathy, focusing just on Frederick for now rather than allowing himself to get suddenly struck by a bunch of other people. He had not looked around the tunnel to see how many were awake versus dreaming, but being in a group like this, telepathic signals could hit him with a lot of force either way, if he was not ready for them.

  Learn something new every day, Adon sent. Although I’m a little surprised that you didn’t know. Rosslyn and her father know a shocking amount about butterflies. Your family’s mystic beast crest is the spider, right?

  Frederick’s cheeks colored slightly, and Adon had a moment to wonder if he had said something wrong before the young lord responded.

  “I believe that Rosslyn and her father keep to the, er, old traditions in ways that many others do not,” Frederick replied in a near whisper. “Not that there is anything wrong with that. Perhaps much to recommend it…”

  Adon did not know quite what to make of that. He had been trying to be casual and even a little playful, but it seemed his social skills had not done quite what he wanted of them.

  I guess those still need a lot of further training…

  The butterfly thought he could probably read what Frederick really meant if he dug into his thoughts a bit, but there were other matters on Adon’s mind already.

  Frederick had started poking Goldie gently on one of her legs to wake her up next, and Adon felt like raising a question.

  Why did you come and wake us up now, by the way? Adon sent.

  He had quickly looked around, and he could see that most of the knights were not very active yet. Some remained asleep.

  “You had not noticed?” Frederick raised an eyebrow and then tilted his head, pointing at Rosslyn.

  Adon turned to look in the Princess’s direction. He saw that she was in a slightly different position from the one he remembered seeing her in when he went into quiescence. Before, she had been on her back, and now, she was leaning slightly to her right side.

  “She is stirring,” Frederick murmured softly, as Adon was formulating his reply.

  And the young lord was right. Rosslyn had begun to awaken. As Frederick awakened Samson and Goldie, she began stretching and yawning, all without any apparent consciousness of her surroundings.

  From across the room, William moved forward, clearly aiming to be near the Princess when her eyes finally opened. But when Rosslyn finally did seem to fully awaken, Adon was the first to hear from her.

  I should not have tried to be so selfless, Rosslyn thought a bit ruefully. My head… Adon, how long have I been out?

  Hard to tell how much time is passing in here, Adon replied, but everyone took a rest in the tunnel after level two, and you woke up at the same time that everyone else has started to get up.

  So I have not wasted our precious time, she thought. Thank the Goddess. This is a small miracle.

  And it seemed that the miracle was essentially without cost. Rosslyn confirmed to herself and Adon that she felt herself at roughly full power despite her energy expenditures of the previous day.

  She pushed herself up from the ground to greet William.

  “Thank you for holding the expedition together while I was under the weather,” Rosslyn said warmly.

  “Think nothing of it,” William replied, matching her warmth. “I am relieved to see you on your feet again.” He took her hand and then pulled her into an embrace.

  Adon felt Rosslyn’s surprise through Telepathy, but she neither resisted nor returned William’s hold.

  After a few seconds, William let go, and they stepped apart and continued talking.

  “Has anything of note happened since I lost consciousness?” she asked.

  “You could ask your friend the butterfly,” William replied, raising an eyebrow. “He is the one who has spent the most time staring into the inferno. The next level appears to be full of fire and fury. Despite that, Adon courageously volunteered to scout for us.”

  Adon was surprised that William had volunteered that information, but he recognized a moment later that he should not have been. Rosslyn’s immediate emotional reaction, which Adon felt through Telepathy, was worry, followed by the cognitive reaction of disagreeing with Adon’s decision.

  That was surely also William’s intention.

  Adon decided to forestall any argument as quickly as he could.

  I have a plan for how to explore the floor safely, he sent to all those nearby. You know that I can use Transformation rather flexibly. Well, here is the form that I believe will help keep me safe from the heat.

  The butterfly’s body began to warm and shift. He had formulated his idea clearly, and for all the strangeness of it, he felt confident that it would work. Even if everyone else present would not be able to tell visually that his new shape was well adapted for the heat, Adon knew that it was. He would have the strength of that conviction on his side.

  What is that? Samson sent.

  “What sort of creature have you become?” Frederick echoed.

  “What in the world…?” Rosslyn said.

  William remained silent, but his brow furrowed in an expression of apparent—and very understandable—confusion.

  I wouldn’t expect anyone to recognize it, Adon sent, replying to everyone at once.

  No one else had ever seen the creature whose shape Adon had taken.

  Because it did not exist in any reality, in any world Adon had ever incarnated into.