The Last Experience Point

Chapter 3: Water Monster

Given how elated and euphoric Zach had been feeling only a short while ago, the fact that he was now sweating, exhausted, and terrified certainly justified the use of the term “emotional rollercoaster.” Seriously! He had been practically skipping along in ecstasy at the idea that he had somehow done something that should’ve been undoable—especially for a lowly city dweller like himself. For the first time in his seventeen years of life, he felt like he was finally headed for greatness. He, Zachys Calador, a virtual nobody, might actually become something so much more than he’d ever believed possible. And really, how could he not have felt so giddy? He had leveled up. He’d really freaking leveled up! Even saying these words to himself had been enough to fill him with such elation that it actually made him shiver. And it wasn’t just that, either; it was also the knowledge that, for the rest of their entire lives, he and Kalana would probably never come across a single person who had even seen a spawn, let alone defeated one. So, yeah. It was looking like his life and all his prospects had taken a dramatic turn for the better. Things were finally going his way for once.

And then?

And then the light above Kalana’s head went out—and just like that, the two of them were submerged in complete and total darkness. So now here they were, forced to trek along a dark, rocky, and damp underground cavern that, for all Zach knew, might go on forever, or at least it certainly felt that way. How long had they even been walking? Thirty minutes? Forty minutes? It was pitch black. It was so dark that Zach couldn’t see his hands if he lifted them right in front of his face. Even Kalana, who had unusually good eyesight, nervously chirped that she was totally blind.

“I’m scared,” she said. Though he couldn’t see her, he could hear her stirring from where she walked beside him. “What if we never get out of here?”

Zach chuckled darkly. “Then at least we’ll die level 2.”

“That’s not funny.”

She was right, of course: it wasn’t funny. He didn’t even mean to say it. But ever since he was little, Zach had always defused fear or tension with facetious or otherwise inappropriate comments. It was simply his way of coping with stress. It wasn’t even something he did intentionally. It was like an automatic reaction to adversity; the greater the hardship, the more outlandish or inappropriate the remarks.

I just want to get the hell out of here.

One foot after the other, he continued onwards into the seemingly never-ending darkness. With each step, the side of his right ankle throbbed in pain. Of course, the pain wasn’t quite as bad as he’d been expecting. In fact, shortly before Kalana’s light had gone out, he’d noticed that the wound had almost appeared to be half healed—or if not “healed,” then far less bloody and decently shallower than it’d appeared when the rat-thing had bitten him. Most likely, this was because his constitution had increased, which he believed meant his body was now more durable, defensive, and able to withstand more damage.

Too bad it doesn’t make me less hungry or thirsty.

As they continued their forward momentum into the all-encompassing darkness, Zach worried the two of them would plunge into another pool of water like the one they’d landed in on the way down here. With each step, the ground seemed to become wetter. At first, it had begun as infrequent puddles; soon after, every other step resulted in the sound of a splash. Now, they were full-on wading in water up to their ankles. And the level seemed to be rising fast, as well.

“It’s up to our knees,” Kalana said only a few moments later. “We might have to swim again, Zach.”

He groaned. “Can you at least give us an idea of how far ahead this place runs?”

“Uh…how?”

“I don’t know. Use that dagger you found.”

“The…dagger I found? Wait a minute. You mean you want me to, ehh, make a bolt of lightning to light up the area ahead?”

“Well, yeah.”

Kalana made a low growl at him. “Ya know, you’re supposed to be the smart one between us, Zach.”

Zach frowned at her despite knowing she couldn’t see it. “The hell is that supposed to mean?”

“We’re in water! What do you think is gonna happen if I zap somewhere in the distance and it’s connected to the same source of water we’re wading through? We’ll be electrocuted.”

Zach rubbed his head and made an embarrassed, dumb-sounding chuckle. “Oh, right. Yeah, I…I kind of am an idiot. You know what it is? I just don’t think clearly when I’m stressed.”

“I know you don’t! You always make the worst choices under pressure. That’s why we ended up here in the first place. That, and ‘cause you never, ever, ever listen to me.”

“Bad choices?” Zach grunted. “I’m the guy who just found us a freaking spawn point. You know, those things only the richest and most powerful people on the planet have access to?”

“Well, um…yeah, but…so what? I mean, if we die, who cares?”

“We’re not going to die, Kal.” He snickered. “Well, okay, maybe you are, but I’m going to be fine.”

“That’s also not funny,” she grumbled. “Jerk.”

“I know, I know. I can’t help it, sorry.”

“Let’s just keep going and pray to the Gods above we don’t end up stuck here forever.”

“Okay.”

Doing his best not to let fear cloud his thinking, he pressed on, Kalana still by his side. He tried to keep a positive attitude even as a sense of dread grew stronger by the moment, especially because the water was getting deeper at an alarming rate. Only a minute or two had passed, and now it was all the way up to his hips, and given Kalana’s height, it was likely up to her belly. Worse, as he extended his arm up and above his head, he could feel the roof of this underground cavern getting lower and lower as the water-level continued to rise. It would be one thing if they had to swim, but it would be another thing entirely if they had to swim a good distance with no way to come up for air. Sure, Kalana could hold her breath for like six-and-a-half eternities, but Zach? Pfft. He could maybe go two minutes before entering into a total, all-out panic leading to death via asphyxiation.

As if the universe was determined to hit Zach with a “luck debt,” then the cost of finding a spawn point was quickly becoming apparent; no sooner had these concerns arisen in his mind than they became a reality before him. The water was now up to his chin, and mere inches constituted the space between his head and the rocky ceiling above him. Now, once more treading water, he stopped moving forward.

“Wait, Kal,” he said as the sound of her paddling ahead of him caused him to feel a sudden pinch of fear. This place was scary enough with the two of them together: alone, it would be a nightmare.

“Aren’t you coming?”

Zach shook his head, then remembered she couldn’t see him. “No,” he replied, “I…I think we’re going to go under if we keep going this way.”

For a moment, Kalana said nothing, and the only sound was the two of them as they treaded water in this humid, dark, and possibly inescapable cavern. “What…what should we do?” she asked. But something was strange about how she spoke these words. Up until now, she had sounded just as fearful as he did. Now, however, there was a slight, but unmistakable change in her voice. It was subtle, but Zach had the sense she was now worried for him and not herself. This both embarrassed and annoyed him.

“Just say it,” Zach muttered.

“Say what?”

“What we’re both thinking. Just say it. Don’t baby me.” Kalana was silent for nearly a half minute, and so once again Zach demanded that she stop playing dumb. “Just say it, Kal. Seriously.”

She sighed. “Maybe…maybe I should go on ahead and see how far this runs. I can hold my breath for a half hour or sometimes more.”

“Okay, well, there you go. Why’d you make me wait so long for you to suggest that?”

“You know why,” she whispered. “It’s ‘cause it’s scary in here, Zach, and I don’t want to just leave you alone by yourself. I know if it were me, I’d be—”

Zach forced himself to laugh, cutting her off before she could even finish her sentence. “You think I’m scared, Kal? Me? You’re being a dummy. Just go. Sheesh.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah I’m sure. Stop babying me.”

“Zach…”

“Will you just go already?” he growled at her. “Seriously. I’m not a little boy.”

“Okay. I’ll be back for you no matter what happens, though. I’d never leave you, ya know.”

“Hurray for me,” he said dryly.

“You’re such a jerk sometimes! Maybe I will just leave you here.”

“Do it. I want you to.”

“Okay then I will!”

With that, she turned around, dove under the water, and swam off—or at least Zach was pretty sure that that was what she’d done by the sound of her body moving through the water. He had to restrain himself from calling out to her to clarify that she wouldn’t really leave him here, right? Of course she had to just be joking.

Wait, what if she’s not? he thought, nervously. I was kind of a huge dick just now.

Zach chided himself for worrying. Since befriending Kalana, he was the one who always messed with her. He didn’t fall for it in the reverse. It was only because he was so spooked by the total darkness that the silly little threat she’d made actually got to him. That was all it was…right? There was no actual way that Kalana would leave him here alone. This was just the kind of thought a person had when they were afraid and their mind was racing through all the possible things that could go wrong. It was just neuroticism. That was all, yep. That was all it was…right?

Oh, crap. It’s been like fifteen minutes. What if she’s actually left me? What if maybe…maybe in her dumb head she actually thought I was being serious about her leaving and not coming back for me? What if she actually somehow took that literally?

It was so quiet in here. It was so dark. There was virtually no sound aside from his body lightly treading the water. There weren’t even any more of those bat-like squeaks he’d heard from earlier on. He swallowed down his fear as the silence and darkness stretched on for what felt like hours. In truth, he had no idea how long it’d been. Fifteen minutes was just a guess. It could just as easily have been five or fifty. He was becoming anxious, though. Of that much, he was sure. He also didn’t blame himself for it, either.

I’m not being a coward, he told himself. Anyone who says otherwise should try spending more than thirty minutes in total darkness and near-total silence while submerged in water.

Distantly, even as he became more and more anxious, he found it fascinating the way his mind seemed to want to torture him on purpose the more time he spent alone in the blinding, deafening nothingness. He started to wonder: what if something horrifying was behind him? What if something was about to grab his legs and pull him under? What if he had died and he was doomed to spend eternity here as some kind of cursed spirit? What if that noise he just heard was not actually his own feet treading water but was something else? Something evil?

Wait, did I just hear a sound? Am I alone in here? Of course I am. Stop thinking these stupid thoughts. Stop it now!

The more he tried to convince himself that whatever “sound” he’d heard was just his mind playing tricks on him, the more convinced he became that there was, in fact, some monster lurking beneath the water ready to grab him. He could feel his heart beat faster in his chest as he became more and more worried—even as the logical part of his brain shouted at him to stop acting like an idiot. There clearly wasn’t anything below him. Of course there wasn’t!

And yet, it was in just that moment, as his anxiety inched ever close to a full-blown panic, that a loud, immediate, and totally unexpected splashing sound erupted in the area directly in front of his face, sending a shock into his chest with such force that he nearly lost his ability to breathe.

“Oh Gods above!” he screamed. “Help! Help! It’s a gods-damned monster! Ahhhhh!”

“W-w-w-w-w-what?” squeaked Kalana. “Where? Where is it? Zach, save me! I think I hear it too!”

Zach, panting, immediately seized control of himself and then exhaled in a massive, drawn-out sigh. This, as Kalana began splashing around shouting at him, demanding to know where this monster was and whether or not he was still alive. She must have been reaching out frantically into the darkness trying to find him, because what else could explain the way she bitch-slapped him three times across the face like he was some prostitute from the southern district who’d been caught ripping her off, and she was his pimp.

“There you are!”

“Kalana, stop! You’re going to drown me,” he said as she grabbed his shoulders. “There’s no damn monster. You just scared the piss out of me.”

“Oh. Whoops.” She laughed. “Sorry.”

Not wanting to seem needy or clingy, he tried to speak in his usual tone. He didn’t want her to know just how unbelievably glad he was that she’d come back to him and how relieved he was to not be alone in this eternally dark hell any longer.

“So, did you find anything?”

“Yeah. Sorry I took so long. I found, um, a whole bunch of different paths that led to different places, but there was one that I think leads us to a way out.”

Zach felt his relief quadruple. “Thank the Gods above. Can you describe it to me?”

“Well, uh, ya, I guess but…you’re gonna be swimming in total darkness. Even if I say something like, ‘It is so-and-so much to the left and then turn after however-many seconds’, you might make a mistake and drown.”

Zach opened his mouth to reply, then closed it immediately, realizing she was right. Even if she gave him extremely detailed instructions, once he was below the water and swimming, how well could he actually be expected to follow them without being able to see anything?

“How long of a swim is it?” he asked.

“If we go really fast? About three minutes. You’re gonna have to try your best to hold your breath.”

Zach swore loudly, unleashing an invective that was so obscene it likely made Kalana blush. In fact, he’d bet money that it’d made her blush. Oddly enough, however, she wouldn’t be the only one blushing, as what she said to him next caused heat to flush into his cheeks.

“Wrap your arms around my waist,” she said. “I’ll swim with you.”

“You want me to…wrap my arms…around you?”

“Mhm. It’s a good idea, right?”

Zach gulped, then hoped she didn’t hear it. “So you just…you just want me to uh…you know, just…”

“Do you have water in your ears or something? Wrap your arms around me and then swim with me. It’s the best way. Unless…”

“Unless what?” he asked, once more hoping the terror didn’t show in his voice.

And it was at this that her voice became uncharacteristically playful and almost arrogant in a way that he’d never before heard from her. “Unless,” she continued, “you’re too afraid to do it ‘cause you’re worried you might like it too much.”

“W-what kind of…are you crazy?” he said with a gasp. “What kind of nonsense is that?”

She laughed at him mockingly. She laughed at him! This did not usually happen. “So what are you so afraid of?”

“Nothing. Here. Let’s just go.”

With a nervous laugh that sounded so dorky and stupid—and that he would totally hate himself for later—he extended both his arms and wrapped it around her waist, pulling himself closer to her. Then he had to resist the urge to mutter something nasty under his breath, because the dumb, annoying girl was right. He liked it way too much. But he’d never let her know that. No way. No way at—

“I thought you got rid of your phone?” she asked him. “You said it was busted and threw it away.”

Zach felt his eyebrows rise to the top of his face as his eyes widened in surprise. “Why?” he croaked. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

She arched her back and bumped her hips into him then said, “It feels like it’s still in your pocket.”

“Th-that’s…!”

She’s doing this on purpose, he thought, as so much heat entered his face that he worried it’d melt. She has to know what she’s doing.

“Anyway, let’s go,” she said, a hint of something mischievous in her voice.

Thankful for a way to escape the conversation, he said, “Y-yeah, let’s go.”

Taking in as much air as his lungs could possibly hold, he clung tightly onto her, then followed after her as she dived under the water. Now, he was fully submerged, and worse, he had no idea which way was forward or back. Even if he’d had a change of heart, he wouldn’t be able to turn back around and surface for air, because even after just ten seconds of swimming, he doubted he could find his way back to where he’d just been. In fact, the combined terror of swimming into complete darkness and having no idea when he’d be able to breathe again was enough for his uh…his cell phone to not be in his front pocket anymore. It wouldn’t be ringing any time soon. Not when he was this on edge.

Doing everything he could not to panic, Zach tried his best not to count out the seconds or concentrate too hard on the feeling of tightness growing in his chest. It was spreading quickly, too. It was a burn: a need for air. The worst thing he could do was to give in and focus too heavily on it, as that would basically ensure he drowned. All he could do was kick his legs and hope that Kalana knew what she was doing and where she was going.

That’s all well and good, he thought, but damn, I really need to breathe. I really, really need to breathe! Oh, Gods above! I REALLY need to breathe NOW!

“Mmmnn!” he moaned, as the pain intensified. What was he supposed to do? He literally had no choice but to try to make the trip with her. It was either that or he died. He was right there on the verge of panic. The fear and alarm were so great that he almost lost control of himself and swam off in a random direction in a desperate search for a pocket of air. In fact, he even loosened his grip on Kalana as his body forced him to do exactly that.

But then he stopped as he felt her grab his hands and once again wrap them around her waist, squeezing his wrists reassuringly. It calmed him just enough that he continued to kick and swim even as his lungs screamed at him for more oxygen. Then he began to feel lightheaded: dizzy. He knew he wouldn’t last more than another few seconds. Luckily, he didn’t need to.

With a gasp, he sucked in every last drop of oxygen as he suddenly realized his head was above water. He wasn’t even aware that they’d been swimming upwards. He’d been on the verge of blacking out. Now, he coughed and gasped as he filled his lungs with Gods-blessed fresh air. At the same time, a beautiful sight greeted his eyes: light! Actual freaking light!

“This way,” Kalana said.

Swimming after her, he arrived at dry land: no, not land. A tube of some sorts. Like a…pipe? He wasn’t sure what it was. It was short and required him to crawl, and it was not wide enough to allow them to move side by side, so he was forced to crawl directly behind Kalana—and with a gradually increasing amount of light, he realized that his entire view was taken up by a sight that he sorely hoped she wasn’t aware he had.

“Your eyes better be closed,” she said threateningly, confirming that she did. “Or I’ll stab them both.”

“Of course they are,” he lied. “You think I like having your annoying butt in my face?”

“I know you do.”

“Yeah, right, Kal. Get over yourself.”

“Well, you better hope I don’t find your cell phone again when we get out of here. ‘Cause if I do I’m gonna break it.”

“Kal…stop!”

She laughed at him, and it was a long, drawn-out bout of giggles that was as mocking as it was cute. “Now you know how I feel when you pick on me and make fun of me for things all the time.”

“This isn’t the same!” More quietly—and awkwardly—he added, “And I have no idea what we’re even talking about.”

For close to five minutes, they crawled along this tube or pipe or whatever it was. Finally, they came across a sealed grate made of rusted metal plating with metal bars preventing anyone from squeezing through. “Gahh, this is no good.” She gripped her fingers around two of the brown, rusted bars and grunted as she tried to push it off. “I can’t do it.”

“Let me try,” Zach said. “I have no idea how strong I actually am now that I’ve got 2 strength. I’ve only had 1 all my life. Who knows? Maybe I can rip that thing off.”

“Yeah, but that would require us backing all the way out of where we just came from so we could switch places. I have a better idea.”

“And what’s that?”

“Back up,” she said. She began to crawl backwards, and Zach, for just the briefest moment, wondered if he should pretend that he was caught off guard so that she’d back up into his face. He decided not to do that, though, because then she really might break his phone.

On his hands and knees, he crawled in the direction opposite the grate for about ten or so seconds. Then Kalana stopped abruptly, and so did he. “What are you planning to do?” he asked her.

“Just watch.” From where he was oriented behind her, it was genuinely difficult—truly, this wasn’t just a perverted excuse—to see anything other than her backside. But from the corner of his vision, he thought he could just make out the glint of something metallic: her dagger.

“It’s dry enough in here, I think,” she said. “And we’re far enough away. Okay, here goes nothing.”

Reflexively, Zach raised his arm to shield his eyes and face as a bright flash of blue light in the form of a bolt of lightning manifested itself at the end of the tube. It lasted only the briefest of instants, but it made a loud boom like the sound of thunder, followed by a secondary cling as the grate popped off and fell out of view. Immediately, Kalana cheered. “It worked! I did it!”

“Nice,” Zach said with a sigh. “Now let’s get out of this tube before I get claustrophobic.”

Kalana crawled to the end of the tube where the grate had been, then paused. Was there a drop? If so, it must not have been very high, because she laughed and then slid out of it. The sound of a splash came less than a second later. Not wanting to be left behind, Zach hurried after her, pausing only to look down at what was merely a five- or six-foot, nonthreatening drop into a much larger body of water outside beneath the noon, late-spring sun.

Filled with relief, he slid his way out of the tube, and then with a splash, landed in what he was reasonably sure was a reservoir and not something much worse like a pool of sewer water. He could tell from the smell alone that, while this might not exactly have been safe to drink, it at least wasn’t a disgusting combination of bodily fluids and trash.

The moment he surfaced from the water, he immediately had to narrow his right eye and completely shut his left, as he had been in the dark for so damn long that even the smallest trickle of the bright, early-afternoon daylight was practically blinding.

“Where are we?” Kalana asked as she swam to a concrete indent in the terrain across from her that led to a dry pathway.

With stinging eyes, Zach took in his surroundings. There were three giant, white, brick-made towers connected together by a massive stone wall that seemed designed to trap the water that ran off from a nearby river. On the path before him, there was a ladder that seemed to lead up the wall and into a crevice that looked designed for a human to fit inside. With a shrug, he ambled his way across the pathway, grabbed the ladder with both hands, and then began to climb; from the sound of hands and feet below him, he assumed Kalana was following.

Upon reach the top, he entered inside the wall, which was really like one long narrow hallway with a few carved out sections that served as windows. Walking a bit of the way off to his right, he peered out of one of these sections and then chuckled happily. Far into the distance, he saw the skyline composed of densely packed, very tall skyscrapers that looked way nicer, cleaner, and overall much more impressive from a distance than while actually walking around nearby them.

“I know where we are.”

“Where are we?” Kalana asked, startling him. He hadn’t heard her get so close. The girl could walk like an assassin, seriously! This was something she actually did a lot of the time. She’d always been able to startle him, albeit unintentionally. But something was way different now: it was almost as though she had the ability to completely dull her footsteps.

More Elvish tricks? he wondered.

Zach pointed ahead of him. “Do you see that large body of water?”

“Yeah,” she replied.

“That’s the Leviathan River. We must have somehow walked beneath the river in some ancient cavern that must’ve, I don’t know, never been cleared out. So basically we’re on the outskirts of Whispery Woods. We’re probably not far from that small, sleepy-little town your dad took us to once. What was it called again?”

“The Cursed Grounds?”

“Yeah.”

Kalana beamed as if at an enjoyable memory. “We need to go back there. They have such a nice candy shop.”

Zach remembered the shop in question. It was a cute little place that sold some of the craziest flavors of candy he’d ever seen. It reminded him of just how much there was to see in the world outside of this economic “prison” known as Whispery Woods.

“Anyway,” Zach began, “we must’ve walked quite a few miles down there. And look—there’s the Bridge of Torment.” Zach pointed at the elegant, silvery bridge that would glow brightly every night. Even in the day, it seemed to gleam majestically. Though they were a few miles away, they could still easily hear the whoosh of DEHVs soaring back and forth as they made their way in and out of the city.

“So, how do we get home?” Kalana asked.

“Oh, that’s easy. We walk.”

“But my feet hurt,” she grumbled.

“Weirdly, mine don’t. It must be because my strength and constitution raised. Hey, what did you gain in your level-up? Now that I’m not worried about dying anymore, I’m…kind of super happy again. Kalana! We freaking leveled up!”

She laughed, then playfully slapped his shoulder. Then she tapped her own shoulder three times, and her stats appeared.

Kalana Vayra: Level 2

(4/100 xp)

1 strength

3 dexterity

1 constitution

3 intelligence

1 speed

1 luck

Zach felt his mouth gape as he saw her stats. “You gained four points? How the hell? I only gained three.”

She shrugged. “I dunno, but you gained an ability, so if anything, you’re the lucky one.”

It was true he’d gained an ability, but he hadn’t even had the chance to look into what it did or how to use it. That was something for later. Thus, rather than debate whose level-up was better, Zach instead asked, “Is that why you’re able to walk so quietly now? I literally could not hear a single footstep. Not even when you were right behind me.”

“Hmm…now that I think about it, I do feel a little different. I feel like I can balance myself more easily and walk softer if I want to. I also—and don’t ask me how or why I know this—but I feel like if I picked up a rock, I could throw it from here into that old plastic cup all the way down there at the other end of the hall.” She pointed.

“No way. Impossible.” Zach looked around for a rock, but there was none. “When we get home, you need to show me something similar. Because that’s an impossible throw at this range. What is it, two-hundred feet away at least? Oh, and speaking of getting home…”

He rubbed his hands together, and he knew a devilish grin was popping up on his face, but he didn’t care. His excitement was simply too great to contain. “If we hurry back, we might even get to school in time for last period!”

“Wow, you love school so much. Dork.”

“No, no, you don’t get it,” he said, holding up his palm. “I’m going to stroll in there with my stats out. People are going to lose their minds. Wait until Synn and Ganks see this! It’s going to create a scene like you’ve never—”

“Zach, no!” she shouted, interrupting him.

“Huh? Why?”

She looked at him as though he were an absolute idiot. “Are you serious?”

He folded his arms and glared at her. “Instead of scolding me, just say whatever it is you want to say.”

She curled her lips, then raised her pointer finger at him. “Number one: we have no idea what the reaction from this city—or umm, heck, even the world is gonna be if two kids from Whispery Woods suddenly announce that they’ve leveled up. You might think it’s gonna make you look cool in front of everyone at school, and maybe it will, but it’ll be the number-one story on the news worldwide by the time we get home.”

“Is that really such a bad thing?”

“Uh, yeah. We have no idea what’ll happen to us.”

“Good things, probably?”

She threw up her arms as if in outrage. “Or horrible, horrible things. You’re too…sheltered.”

“Sheltered?” he asked with a laugh. “Look at where I live. My mom’s dead, my dad’s a drunk, and my brother moved out years ago. How am I sheltered?”

“Okay, sorry. Maybe…maybe I’m being too harsh. But my family survived a genocide, and I was a slave until I was eleven years old, so to me, you’re sheltered.”

At this, Zach recoiled as if struck. “Wait, what?”

“I…I don’t wanna talk about it. I didn’t even mean to say that much.”

“Is what you just said even true?”

“I said I don’t wanna talk about it!”

He could tell from the intensity of her words that she had meant what she’d said. Even still, he couldn’t believe that she’d been his friend for almost two years and never thought to mention that. It didn’t even seem real. It wasn’t that he doubted her, it was just that there hadn’t been any genocides in centuries. Not even just in the cities run by the Guild of Gentlemen, either, but on the entire planet of Galterra. And slavery was outlawed a thousand years ago. Her words were difficult to believe. Yet…he knew she wouldn’t lie to him about something so serious.

I need to ask her about this later.

“Anyway,” she continued, “things aren’t as…simple as you think. If we go telling people we leveled up, they’re gonna want to know how. And even if we don’t get kidnapped in the middle of the night and tortured into giving up the location, it’s only a matter of time before people follow us wherever we go.”

Zach nodded, then snapped his fingers in agreement. “You’re right. Good point. We need to keep this a secret from everyone—at least for now. You know we have to go back there, right?”

She fixed him with a hard stare. He was expecting her to argue. He was expecting her to list off a million reasons why it was dumb to ever go back into that dark, belowground cavern. Instead, she merely nodded, and it was a firm, determined nod. “Yep. Of course we do.”

“Tomorrow, after school, and then the two days we have off after that: we should spend every minute we can there. We should find out how long those things take to respawn, and then we should see if there’s any other spawns or if that’s the only one. After seeing this? I have to believe there are still dungeons out there somewhere. This might’ve even been part of one once. Who knows what secrets are still in the world?”

Kalana smiled. “I guess I’m gonna have to use all my gold, right? Since you’re broke and we need supplies.”

Zach made a weak laugh, rubbing the back of his head. “Well, I’ll pay you back once we’re rich. We need food, water-proof helmet lights, maybe an oxygen tank, some extra flashlights, bandages just in case, and…and I guess fresh clothes for going in and out.”

“I only have 500g in my savings. I could maybe take a 100g loan, too.”

“That should be enough for almost everything. I can chip in 80g. If we sold that”—he pointed—“we’d probably get 80k or maybe over 100k. Or hell, what do I know? Maybe millions. It’s hard to know what something is worth when it’s the first piece of equipment dropped since like forever.”

“We’re not selling it!” she said forcefully. “It’s mine and I love it.”

He held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Fine, fine, fine. But if we get another one, I don’t want to hear it: we’re selling it and splitting the profit. Anyway, we have a lot of planning to do tonight if we’re actually going to camp a spawn, words that I doubt anyone in this city has spoken in like a thousand years.”

Zach felt his spirits grow and his energy level skyrocket as he thought about what the future was going to bring. Whispery Woods was impoverished and could barely pay for the roadwork, so the chance of anyone actually going spelunking down where’d fallen was almost zero. Not for many months, at least. And even then, the construction crews would likely have no reason to venture as far into the depths as they had.

“Okay, here’s what we do. Let’s go put that grate back on or at least prop it up so it looks like it’s still attached. Not that it really matters, but it’s good to be safe. From now on, we’ll come in through here. And then we’ll…we’ll do it. We’ll actually do it.”

“Hey, Zach?” she asked sweetly.

“Yeah?”

“I’m excited.”

“Me too!”