The dungeon entrance was particularly surprising – in pairs, the adventurers would stand in the red circle, then begin to levitate until eventually flying into the yellow ring above them and disappearing.

As Jay entered the dungeon, he was a little disappointed that he didn’t trigger the chance for the level four dungeon – he was level five after all and it would’ve been easy for him alone, much more so with Anya.

As they landed on the dark landscape of the dungeon, Anya seemed as serious as ever as she looked around at the surroundings and gripped her new crossbow.

“Is she scared?” Jay thought “oh well, I better summon a feeble creature.”

“Anya, I’m going to use my skill to summon one of my little friends. It won’t attack you, so don’t attack it.”

Anya nods back, as she continues to remain vigilant but it wasn’t long before she was standing in awe at Jay’s abilities.

Jay thought ‘Shift’ as his ring flew off his finger and got bigger, bones began to leave it and began to float around Jay. Small bones at first, then the bigger ones – until finally the two large black marsh bones joined the ring.

“Raise” jay said, his hand emitting a green gas which was more dense than the wisps of gas mixed with the floating bones.

Before Anya’s eyes, a beast formed. “No, not a beast, a monster… an abomination” she thought as her mouth was now open, speechless.

Again, ligaments began popping with bones snapping and relocating themselves; green gas became more dense and mixed with them before it solidified. Two glowing green eyes at the centre of the eye sockets of a large rodent-like skull with horns glared at Jay, then at Anya as it’s skeletal body was formed.

Jay smiled as his necrotic ring changed back into the second form and flew back onto his finger. ‘Hmm, only about three or four skeletons are left in it,’ he noted, looking at his ring with a smug attitude ‘I’ll stock up soon enough’ he thought as he pulled out and ate some bondtussle root from his inventory.

[Mana Regen buff 1%] – lasts for 1 hour(s).

“Now, time to name you…” Jay almost started chuckling, thinking about naming it Don aswell, but this time he had an even better idea, he grinned evilly as he put his plan into action.

“Today, your name shall be gifted to you from I, your creator – your life. Today I shall bestow upon you your eternal name.” Jay said seriously, and solemnly “henceforth, you are… Muffin!”

Jay bent over with laughter, it echoed through the dungeon while Anya just stood there, not even vigilante at this point, absolutely amazed at Jay’s pathetic level of humor. All she could do was shake her head at him as he laughed.

“You’re stupid.” She went back to being vigilant once more, still shaking her head.

It was night-time in the dungeon, a diamond-shaped blue moon was the only source of light. The whole landscape was flat, paved with black stone, while black obelisks the size of trees randomly dotted the land. In the distance, an obelisk stood out much higher than the rest – it was the size of a mountain.

“That seems like where we need to go” pointed Jay towards the huge obelisk “Muffin, take the lead”. The goblin-like skeleton walked ahead of them.

“I’ll stay in the middle of you two since I’m ranged” said Anya, Jay nodding in agreement._.

—

“Wait! Don’t leave. I want to catch up to that level five loser. We’ll get loads of exp from the level four bayrings.” Matheson said with confidence.

“But they told us we should leave if this happens, and~” Trenly was interrupted before he could finish.

“No! You’re using my bow, and you will be my partner till this is over!”

Sighing, Trenly frowned as the duo started exploring the level four dungeon.

—

As Muffin was walking past an obelisk, it lit up with a gold glow. Suddenly, a circular indentation appeared on the walls of the obelisk – two bayring’s flying out of it. It appeared as if they were merged with it before the obelisk was activated.

These monsters were strange, Jay had never heard of anything like them. They were simply a flying yellow ring with a blue diamond-shape crystal floating at the centre. Jay analysed the creature.

<[Bayring – Level 2]>

Type: Phenomenon – Normal

HP: 50/50

<[Skills]>

[Coil] (Passive) – The bayring’s outer body naturally spins at high speeds, giving extra damage to it’s melee attack and charging it’s crystal.

[Discharge] – 5 electrical damage – 5% chance to stun for 2 seconds. After charging its crystal, the bayring unleashes a devastating attack. 30 second charge time.

[Graze] – 3 Friction damage/second – Slows down the Bayring’s coil, resulting in a lower charge rate. If the target is in contact for longer than five seconds, they become burnt and take [50%] extra damage, though the Bayring is safely discharged.

<[Description]>

No one is sure what these things are – do they grow from the obelisk, is that their home? Are the Bayring’s just a defence mechanism of some long-dead ancient civilisation? We don’t know, perhaps we never will.

“Huh, they have a lot of health for a level two monster.” Jay compared them to the monsters from a level one dungeon. “Perhaps their base stats get higher, the higher level the dungeon.”

Immediately, the two ring’s flew at Muffin and started grinding from either side.

“Shit!” Jay said as he ran towards Muffin and stopped the attack on one side with his shield. Anya had already responded with a heavy bolt, hitting the other bayring perfectly in the crystal at it’s centre – it went flying away and tumbling to the ground; it’s yellow ring stopped spinning completely.

A damage number appeared over it

-10

It was a critical hit.

“Nice one Anya” said Jay as his buckler was heating up, the bayring grinding against it. Muffin was quick to act as it started slashing at the bayring, some attacks hitting the crystal while others hit the ring.

“The crystal is the weak spot!” Anya yelled as she was racking another bolt.

“Got it” Jay said as he made Muffin focus it’s attacks on the crystal.

The Bayring on the ground started to spin up again as it levitated once more.

“Ouch,” Jay pulled his buckler away as it was almost getting too hot. He took out his knife “guess I can’t let them have all the fun” he said, stabbing his old cooking knife into the crystal.

Muffin’s claws were only doing one damage without a bleed effect since it was an inorganic life-form; however when it tried to bite the crystal, it didn’t only crit, but did double damage due to it’s piercing attack. Damage numbers slowly floated above it.

-1, -1, -8

The other bayring was flying back as it was hit with another bolt, sending it flying away once more.

-10

“Just finish that one, I’ll hold the other one off!”

Jay nodded as he went back to stabbing the bayring. It wasn’t long before it died, it’s hard outer ring flickered for a moment before it seemingly vanished from existence; all that’s left was it’s crystal centre.

[30 Exp]

Jay analysed the crystal after sending Muffin off to attack the other one.

[Minor Crystal – Green]

[Alchemy ingredient Tier 1]

[Spell channel Tier 1]

“…spell channel?” whispered Jay to himself as he stashed the crystal, running over to fight the other bayring.

It was half health at this point, and it’s crystal was nearly charged since it only used [Graze] once at the start of the fight.

It was beginning to make a humming sound just as the crystal glowed it’s brightest –

“~HmmmMMM~~~[CRACK!]” Suddenly, with a loud cracking noise, the crystal released its energy, hitting Muffin squarely on the skull.

A flash of light lit up the dungeon for a moment, a thunder sound echoed back at them a few times afterwards.

“Shit!” Jay and Anya both said at the same time, waiting for their eyes to adjust to the darkness again. Checking that each other was ok, they realised the bayring attacked Muffin. It needed to die.

Nodding to each other, they didn’t need to say a word – they knew what they had to do.

The feeble creature was already attacking the bayring, but it soon fell to a pile of smoking bones. It was low health from the [Discharge] attack, and was injured from another [Graze].

Another bolt hit the bayring, sending it to the ground once more. “One more of your bolts should do it” Jay said calmly, he had the situation under control.

“Right.” said Anya, impressed with Jay’s cool-headedness during the fight.

Trying to buy some time, Jay ran to the bayring, stabbing the crystal at its centre before it could start levitating again, successfully hitting it three times – all critical hits since he hit the crystal.

“Move!” said Anya – she was aiming the bolt in Jay’s direction.

Jay stepped back as the bolt whizzed by and took the remaining health of the bayring.

“Whew, nice shot” he praised Anya.

“Thanks. Any loot?”

“Yeah, I got a green crystal from one of them, you can have the other”

“Thanks. These are useful for spells.. When we learn some anyway.”

“Spells? How do these work?”

“You’re meant to socket them into a weapon or armour, but even a necklace would work. They allow you to cast offensive spells more quickly – no chanting or charge time. They’re quite useful to combat-based mages. You can even hold them if your hand and sue them, but most people prefer to hold a weapon.”

“Hmm, interesting.” Jay said as he gazed at his small crystal.

Walking over to the bones, he tried to raise Muffin again but was rejected with a notification

[Not enough resources]

“Huh, so that’s what happens when they die; some bones are destroyed… guess I’ll need to add some more”

He made his ring [Shift] again, “Raise”.

This time, the remaining bones on the ground as well as some from the ring formed Muffin again.

[Chimera Research 3%]

‘Part of the marsh bone must’ve mixed in’ He analysed as he smiled, seeing his creation come back to life as if nothing ever happened. ‘My life is gonna be so easy’ he thought as he shook his head with a joyful smile. ‘It’s a shame these bayring’s don’t drop any bones though’.

“You good?” Anya asked

“Yeah, just thinking.”

“Well I’m ready. Let’s move?”

Jay was surprised she asked his consent this time “Oh, you were gonna wait for me?” he tested her.

“You’re more useful than I thought.” she tried to be expressionless, but for half a second, a tiny smile appeared as she looked away to the next obelisk.

“I’ve nearly levelled up anyway, so I want to keep going. Maybe I can also reach level five before we get too tired”.

“Sounds good. Let’s move.”

The two continued like this for the next few hours, finding that the smaller obelisks would eject two level one bayrings or one level two – while the bigger obelisk’s would eject two level two’s and rarely, a level three.

As they walked, they came to realise that the distant mountain-sized obelisk wasn’t getting any closer. They both came to the conclusion that it was simply an illusion, designed to have them walk in a certain direction.

“Hmm, I wonder if there’s a boss in this dungeon” said Jay. So far, it seemed endless, and there wasn’t a progression in the obelisk sizes – it was all random. “They said there would be level seven obelisks in this dungeon right? It seems weird that we haven’t even found a level four one yet”.

“We have to figure that out on our own.” said Anya as she looked at the moon and her crystal.

—

“Just fucking hit it!” Matheson said, dodging away from the flying bayring’s [Graze] skill.

“I am! It’s got so much damn health!” Trenley yelled back. The level five bayring had a huge health pool, but they had gradually taken it down to about 15% HP.

“AH!” Trenly suddenly screamed as a level five bayring was digging it’s crystal into his back. He fell forward as it pushed into the wound “Fuck this, I’m outta here! We’ll die if we continue!” Trenly knew he needed to escape, at this point it doesn’t matter what Matheson said.

Trenly screamed, slowly losing consciousness as he began to run away from the bayring – he could leave if he made enough distance; thankfully he had a movement ability, [Dash], which gave him enough distance to meet the requirements to leave the dungeon – he had to make it out of the monsters aggression range.

“Little stupid unreliable bastard!” Screamed Matheson, seething with rage while seeing Trenly abandon him as he killed the bayring they both damaged together, before grabbing its crystal and exiting the dungeon.

“Ah!” Trenley yelled as he floated down from the yellow ring – the dungeon entrance. He was caught by his ranged class trainer.

“Tend to his wounds, then take him back to the guild.” The trainer said in a calm voice.

“Sir.” A guard grabbed the young man from the trainer and carried him off.

Before long, out came Matheson, swearing with a red face full of anger. “Fucking bastard! He nearly got me killed! I tried to tell him we shouldn’t attempt the level four dungeon but he didn’t listen! I only stayed there to protect him! Instructor, I want to join another party!” Matheson did nothing but lie.

The instructor shrugged “All the other’s are in the dungeon. There’s no one you can join. You can go by yourself.” ‘…He’s a pretty bad liar for a noble’ Thought the instructor.

“Ugh! Can’t you come with me? Hmm?!?”

“No. We have strict orders to guard the students, due to another situation happening in the forest. Not even your father can override these orders.”

“Bastard” said Matheson, he knew the instructors couldn’t punish him so he cursed at them freely. Turning around, he floated back into the dungeon.