The Last Experience Point

Chapter 21: Gearing Up for Skelly Chips

Even though the skeleton was “looking” directly at him, the creature apparently showed no interest in Zach, as it seemed content to simply stand idly by just off to the right of the extremely narrow passage in the rock wall that Zach had come through. Because of the small opening, no one who ventured through could possibly see the skeleton, which was why Zach had been caught so off guard and unprepared. Now, however, he knew exactly where it was, and with his sword gripped tightly in both hands, he was ready for it.

“What happens if I yell at you?” Zach shouted at it. “Do you even care?”

The eyeless, red-bandana-wearing, scimitar-wielding sack of bones did not show any reaction. It continued to stand perfectly still, as did the other one, which waited in front of a rounded, cave-like entrance on the opposite end of the area. This meant that, at least in one regard, they were similar to the mobs he and Kalana had hunted in the underground cavern below the Leviathan River. But they were also different in one very key way: they appeared to attack on sight. Or…okay, not “on sight,” but within a certain range.

Once, a few years ago, when he and his dad had sat together in the living room of their apartment watching the yearly tournaments, a news reporter had been interviewing a member of the Children of Order on a beautiful ranch near his estate on the Faded Island off the south-west coast of North Bastia. There had been a pen behind the two of them, where his personal mobs spawned. They never showed them on screen for whatever reason, but Zach recalled what the man had said to the reporter when she’d stepped too close to the wooden fence.

“Stay back, sweetheart,” he’d warned, gently ushering her in the opposite direction. “Those ones are aggro.”

Right. That had been it. “Aggro.” Some mobs “aggroed” when approached too closely, whereas others were “passive” and, as long as not physically touched, would do nothing to harm anyone who came within their range, no matter how close. These two skeletons were clearly aggro. That much, at least, was no longer in question.

I can’t believe this is how everything ended up, Zach thought, his emotions mixed and chaotic.

In his mind, Zach had foreseen things turning out very differently. He imagined finding his “aquatic-type enemy” near some pond or something, luckily discovering it was around his level, and then killing it over and over while he relaxed on a lawn chair in a nice little camping area he’d set up. But now, it seemed, he was destined to be trapped in this bizarre, surreal place that was apparently a dungeon. Dungeons weren’t even supposed to exist in this world anymore. Hadn’t the last one been wiped out hundreds of years ago?

That’s what they tell us, anyway, Zach thought. But who the hell knows now? There could be like 20 of them still out there for all we know.

He still couldn’t believe that it was him in this situation. Here he stood—he, Zachys Calador, of all the people on this planet, in an actual dungeon. Would any of his friends at school believe him if he told them? Hell, would they even believe a dungeon like this existed right in the middle of the farmlands? The fact that Zach was literally trapped in here until or unless he fought—and killed—a freaking boss left him feeling apprehensive and uneasy. And yes, a bit afraid, too. But that wasn’t all he felt, was it?

No, he thought as his lips formed into a nervous grin. I’m so damn excited.

The fear was only a small portion of it. He was eager. He was hungry. As long as he kept his wits about him and didn’t try to pull off anything crazy or stupid, he was going to level up—maybe even several times. It had taken him almost an entire Gods-damned day just to get from level 2 to level 3, and yet, right here, in this very spot, were enemies that seemed to respawn every five minutes and gave 25xp a kill. That meant if he just killed them twice more each, he would be level 4.

If I stayed in the underground cavern, that would’ve taken 25 spawns and twelve-and-a-half hours. This’ll take me ten minutes if I’m careful, cautious, and I don’t rush.

With that thought in mind, he stepped forward, then paused. The skeleton continued to remain where it was. Assuming a fighting stance, he took another small step forward—and still there was no reaction from the level-5 enemy. Glancing behind him, he realized only about fifteen feet of space spanned the gap between him and the wall he’d been pressed against. It wasn’t a lot. Hopefully, he could get more before drawing the skeleton’s attention, as he did not want to aggro the second one while still fighting the first, but he also didn’t want to fight with his back to the wall, either.

If I aggro both at once, the chance of making a mistake and taking a serious, life-threatening wound goes way up.

Part of him, to his own amazement, actually wanted to rush in and take them both on. Even amid his natural fearfulness, he was mystified to discover how much he was enjoying this. In fact, he was no longer sure what he feared more: these mobs, this dungeon, the inevitable fight with a boss, or himself at how much he wanted to be here. That last feeling in particular was a growing one, too. Even just in the past few minutes, the scale that balanced fear vs. eagerness was tipping ever more gradually in favor of the latter.

Taking a slow breath, he inched another step forward again—and this was the one that did it. The moment his sneaker made contact with the rocky surface, the skeleton snapped to life. “Frrruughhh!” it moaned, its bony feet making a disgusting crackling sound as it walked towards him—no, wait! Not walked: stumbled.

Zach’s grin broadened. If it was stumbling towards him, then he knew exactly what it would do. Zach bent his knees, lifted his shoulders, lowered his arms, and turned his wrists forward so that his sword pointed downwards and to his right. The skeleton continued to stumble towards him, almost looking as though it would fall over. And then the exact moment it reached him, it came to an abrupt halt, raised its scimitar in one hand above its head, and then struck down at Zach, who had been preparing for that exact sequence of movement.

Just as he’d done earlier, Zach shot back up, almost to his tiptoes, and lashed his sword upwards with him, delivering a massively powerful parry that caused the scimitar to fly out of the skeleton’s right “hand” and spin several times in the air before landing with a clank on the ground halfway across the room—right next to where his destroyed backpack and all of his personal items had spilled out everywhere.

Pleased with himself, Zach laughed at the creature, who merely stood there as if deliberately waiting for Zach to kill him. It seemed that, unarmed, the red-bandana-wearing skeleton had no attacks to use.

“Wow, it really just stands there,” he said aloud. “What’s the matter, jackass? Got nothing left to—”

“Frrruughhh!” shouted the skeleton across the room.

Zach turned his head in its direction, then swore, as after just the briefest moment of confusion, he was pretty sure he knew what happened. It was that damn scimitar! It had landed too close to the other one, and it must’ve aggroed the Gods-damned creature. So wait, time out…did that mean then that mobs could aggro each other onto another person? Meaning, if he had enough strength to pick this whole skeleton up and just hurl him across the room into the opposite wall, would the act of him doing so cause his friend to come stumbling over to join the fight?

I think so. It’s just a guess, but it’s…it’s probably the case. Either way, he needed to kill this first one before the second one got to him. Or wait, do I? he wondered, pausing.

He needed to play things safely and intelligently. These things were using real weapons and getting hit would result in equally real consequences. If he struck out at the disarmed skeleton while the other one was on its way, there was a chance he could put himself off balance and take a hit. Since the skeleton was now harmless and unable to actually hurt him, it made much more sense to use the distance he had and launch an attack on the one that was still a threat.

Having made up his mind, he decided to leave the first skeleton standing brainlessly in place, and with a determined grunt, he lifted his blade and charged at the other, which was heading straight for him. He met the skeleton head on, and with all his strength, he swung his sword vertically down on its chest.

19

The skeleton roared, “Frrruughhh!” and attempted to do the exact same thing to him. Zach pivoted, circling around and away, avoiding the attack, then slashed the creature across its chest bones a second time.

15

It turned to face him—or at least attempted to do so. Zach was already striking a third time, prioritizing speed over strength, and thus hitting for 11. Then he drew his arms around, intent on going in again…but the skeleton died. It simply crumpled into a pile of bones, disappearing a moment later in a puff of smoke.

+25xp

“Whew,” he said, wiping a bit of sweat on his brow. Amid the rush of adrenaline that came with fighting something capable of killing you, Zach failed to recall how much damage he’d done and with what. It was probably a good idea to know how much damage these things could even take in case he found himself in a situation later where he was in combat with multiple ones and had to prioritize a single target.

Zach turned around and calmly walked to the skeleton that was still “alive.” The creature was obliviously standing in place, doing nothing. It wasn’t even facing him. Zach came closer and positioned himself so that he was facing the skeleton’s side; then, he fully extended his arm so that the entire length of his sword was jutting out, though he did not strike with it just yet. He merely waved it in the air, like one of those athletes who played “ball-runner” when it was their turn to try hitting the ball and they’d just stepped up to the swinging-marker. Nodding to himself, he backed up a few small steps.

“So this is my range,” Zach said to himself, doing his best to burn the distance into his memory. He needed to know exactly how far away he could be with his sword and still strike something successfully. “I should test something.”

Zach swung the blade across the skeleton’s chest, hitting for 15. Then, using what he estimated was an equal amount of strength, he delivered the exact same strike, but only this time, instead of slashing it across the skeleton’s chest, he went for its head. Following the sound of a crunch, the creature began to stumble a few steps back as the damage numbers appeared above its skull.

22

So, it definitely hurt more to hit the head area. Curious, Zach wondered what would happen if he tried to use a thrusting attack. His sword was clearly capable of stabbing as well as slashing, yet during practice with Fluffles, all the strikes Zach had learned were slashing. Taking a step back, he lifted his front foot, shifting all the weight to his rear leg, then immediately shifted it back forward, stepping down and thrusting forward at the same time. With an even grosser-sounding crunch, the sword pierced straight through the skeleton. Zach yanked it back out, which took a bit of effort, but was still easily doable.

14

The skeleton crumpled in on itself, reduced to a bunch of falling bones, each one making clack as they landed one after the next on the rocky floor; this, after doing a total of 51 damage, which meant that, however much these creatures could take, it was less than—or equal to—51. Zach breathed a pleased sigh, which quickly turned into a gasp as he spotted a shining white light following the puff of smoke.

Another drop!

Greedily, he reached down, picked up his item, and then ran over back to the safe corner outside of aggro range so that he could inspect it. It looked like a red piece of smooth, silky fabric, and like the tunic he now wore, it came encased in plastic as though it were something ordered from the internet or sent from a manufacturer.

Decaying Bandana of the Undying: discovered by Zachys Calador

Armor + 1

+1 dex

Helm Sight Level: basic (non-boss)

Zach stared at that last line in confusion. What in the hell was “Helm Sight Level?” And why did it say helm? This was clearly a bandana—in fact, the same red bandana those skeletons had been wearing. In what universe was a bandana a helmet?

I guess I’ll figure it out later.

With his inventory and stats still open, he ripped open the plastic like a child opening a birthday present and tied it around his head. Interestingly, his stats did not change until the moment he had finished securing it and had taken his hands off.

Zachys Calador: Level 3

(100/150 xp)

Armor Bonus: 6

4 strength

4 dexterity

4 constitution

1 intelligence

2 speed

1 luck

[EQUIPPED GEAR]

Zach read along and nodded to himself, pleased to see that his stats had gone higher. But then his eyes widened and his heart skipped a beat as he noticed something there that definitely hadn’t appeared before. Below his stats were the words “EQUIPPED GEAR” in brackets, and they were slightly darker and larger than the letters used to display his stats.

The hell is this?

Becoming curious, he touched the letters, wondering if it did something—and it sure did! Right before his eyes, his stats zipped across the air in front of him, moving well over to the left, and in the place where they’d been, a diagram—or perhaps it was more accurate to say a “silhouette” of what looked to be a generic human body took its place. This silhouette was standing with its feet spread apart and its arms extended, but angled downwards towards its hips. Surrounding this illustration on every side as if to form sort of an enclosing square were a bunch of boxes, and on all but three of the boxes was an illustration of some kind.

One of the boxes looked like a pair of hands, and another a pair of feet. One looked sort of like a shoulder, and there was even something that distinctly resembled a necklace. There were also two that looked exactly, one-hundred-percent identical: fingers with rings on them. The only three boxes that did not contain an illustration were the three that appeared to be “filled” with something.

“Oh, wow!” Zach exclaimed. “I get it!”

As it finally started to click, Zach realized that these “boxes” were slots of some kind, and they must have represented equipment. That had to have been the case, because the three filled boxes contained what could almost be described as computer-like “thumbnails” of the equipment he currently had in his possession.

Directly above the figure’s head was a filled “slot” that contained the image of the red bandana that Zach was now wearing; to his satisfaction, he realized that simply by touching the thumbnail-sized image, he could make the bandana’s stats appear above the box. The same was true of his tunic and of his weapon, which appeared adjacent to another box that showed an illustration of a sword. Zach took an educated guess that if he had another weapon of any kind in his opposite hand, it would occupy that particular slot.

But wait! What would happen if he had another tunic? If he just simply threw on another one of these tunics, which one would show? Or could he even do that? The fact that he had ten fingers but only two ring slots made him doubt that he could just wear whatever equipment he wanted. This opinion was evidenced by the fact that his bandana had been called a “helm.” The term must’ve been referring to the slot as opposed to the item.

Though he couldn’t be certain, Zach felt this strongly implied that people couldn’t just double or triple-up on equipment. Obviously, he’d test it if he ever got the chance, but if he had to bet money, he’d put his remaining 3,500g on something like that not working.

The only thing Zach still didn’t understand was why he was only first seeing this now. Did it have something to do with that “Helm Sight” thing on his bandana? To test, he quickly removed the headband, and he noted with an “ahh” that the silhouette and the boxes vanished, and his stats—with one less point in dexterity and armor—quickly scurried back over to where they always were. Upon “re-equipping” his bandana, his armor and dex again increased, but rather than return the earlier illustration he’d seen, it simply caused the option to reappear.

[EQUIPPED GEAR]

Did this then mean that the “Helm Sight” thing was what allowed him to view this information? His inclination, at least based on the current evidence, was to say that, yes, it was. But just to be sure, he removed his tunic so that he now stood in the dungeon shirtless, and to his frustrated surprise, the option to view his gear vanished, just as it had when he’d removed his bandana. Why, though? It just simply made no sense? Unless…

Of course!

There was only one possible explanation: only people with two or more pieces of equipped gear could access that particular illustration. It made sense, too, because now that he thought on it, the ability to see his inventory wasn’t there if he had nothing in it. For whatever reason, it seemed people could only access certain information or statuses if it was applicable to them, which was why most people on Galterra would go their whole entire lives only ever having the ability to see their plain, boring level-1 stats.

That’s got to be it, he thought, putting the tunic back on.

Satisfied with himself, Zach rotated his shoulders, bent and unbent his legs, stretched his arms, loosened his neck, and prepared for the next spawn. This time, he would level up, and Gods-be-damned, he was excited! Finally, he would make some progress. Finally, he would start to catch up. The Gods only knew how far along Kalana must be by now. But did she have access to her own private dungeon? He thought not! Actually, who knew? Maybe she did. Either way, he really needed to stop thinking about it all the time. Seriously, how did it help his situation to constantly stress himself out worrying about Kalana’s level instead of his own?

Why do I even want to do this in the first place? he wondered. To see her again, sure. But that’s not the only reason! I want to level up for my own sake as well. I can’t keep worrying about falling behind!

Zach shoved all doubts about his progress out of his mind, and instead, he focused on fighting intelligently and killing the next two skeletons that would soon spawn. Because he’d killed the one near the back of the area first, he wasn’t surprised when it spawned a full half a minute before the one near the tiny, narrow entrance. No, that was entirely something he’d expected. What he hadn’t expected to see, and what was now floating above both of their heads, was:

[45/45]

Skelly Grunt A

Level 5

[45/45]

Skelly Grunt B

Level 5

“So that’s how you know what they’re called,” he said aloud, simply astonished. This time, he didn’t even bother experimenting: this had to be what the bandana did. He was certain of it. This “Helmet Sight” or whatever…it allowed him to see their names and how much damage they could take.

But wait…if that was the case, then did all “helm” equipment bestow this kind of ability onto their wearers? Or was it only this one special bandana that came from this one dungeon? Zach had so many questions about how things worked, and some day, he planned to find the answer to all of them. For now, he simply wanted to level up. He’d waited so long for this! He’d biked, walked, fought in a park under the hot sun, crashed into boulders—it was time to keep going! The mobs had respawned, too.

Determined and amped up, he stepped within Skelly Grunt A’s aggro range and waited with his blade pointing forward. Unlike last time, the mob didn’t open up with its stumble-attack. Instead, it delivered its easily avoidable horizontal slash with the scimitar held in its right hand. Zach ducked beneath it, then countered with a strike of his own, dealing 15 damage.

He wasn’t sure if it was the fact that his dex had increased or if it were just something he was imagining, but his body somehow felt more “responsive” than it usually did, as well as more balanced. Whatever the case, it was with great ease that he was able to duck beneath two more of the same attacks that came in one after the next. Even as he evaded the strikes, he couldn’t help but find himself grinning at the new, extremely helpful “sight” he’d gained.

[30/45]

Skelly Grunt A

Level 5

Zach waited for it to attack him yet again. And like before, it used the exact same overhanded slash that it’d just thrown at him twice. Zach didn’t even bother ducking this time around. There was no need to conserve his energy, as he was overflowing with it. Raising his sword, he blocked the attack. Then, moving quickly, he countered with his own strike. Even though he’d learned that attacking the head did the most damage, he went for what was easier and safer: the body.

15

Following another gross crunch as he rattled its bones, the Skelly Grunt cried, “Frrruughhh!” and raised his hand, slicing downward. Zach lifted his own blade, which met the scimitar above his head with a loud clang, and then as the skeleton attempted to draw its hand back for another strike, Zach sent his sword forward into a thrust, stepping into the attack as he did so and penetrating the mob for 17 damage. This time, rather than pull his blade out, he waited to see what would happen. Fewer than two seconds went by, and then the mob simply crumpled into bones, collapsing around the blade.

Zach chirped with glee, seeing the now familiar—but always exciting—white shine that meant a piece of loot had dropped that belonged to him. His cheer died somewhat, though, as he picked it up and saw that it was another of the red bandanas. Well, maybe he could sell it, right? But where the hell would he put it? He had no backpack anymore: just a pile of now-filthy clothes with rocks and gravel covering them in the middle of this area. Oh well. At any rate, he wanted to be absolutely sure that this was the same piece of loot before he potentially threw it away, so he checked his inventory.

Decaying Bandana of the Undying: discovered by Zachys Calador

Armor + 1

+1 dex

Helm Sight Level: basic (non-boss)

“Yep,” he said sadly and with a shrug. “Same exact bandana.”

At the very least, it gave him the option of testing his earlier theory. Tearing open the package, he removed the bandana, lifted it to his face, and then placed it against his forehead on top of the other, identical bandana. Then, a bizarre sort of warmth began to spread in his cheeks, one which, in less than a second, quickly turned hotter—almost to the point of pain. Then Zach screamed in terror as the entirety of his vision turned red as though he were wearing a special pair of glasses. At the same time, in the air all around him, he saw the following:

X!

X!

X!

X!

X!

“Okay, okay, I get it!” he cried, tearing the second bandana off his face and chucking it over his shoulder. Once more, he could see clearly and in color, and the pain vanished as though it had never been there. The strange “X!” things everywhere were gone too. With an uneasy, somewhat traumatized sigh, he said, “Lesson learned. Only one ‘helm’ at a time. Got it.”

Putting the disturbing experience out of his mind, he approached Skelly Grunt B, who aggroed him right away. Zach readied himself. Then he laughed as he saw the creature stumbling towards him. “Yes!” he cried out. “I love this attack!”

An instant later, the skeleton was disarmed, and with three quick strikes, Zach dispatched him. Now, it was finally time. Now, his moment had come. After all this waiting. After all this journeying. After everything he’d endured to get to this point: finally, it was time to level up!

+25xp

Here we go, baby! It’s time!

The words he so desperately wanted to see appeared. He rejoiced as his eyes saw them, and then, holding his breath, he read them—then almost choked as the air whooshed out of his lungs.

Level up!

+1 spd (3)

Zach’s mouth fell open. “That’s it?” he whispered. Then, in an enraged shout, he cried out, “That’s fucking it? One Gods-damned point in speed?”

This couldn’t be. This was impossible. Was this all that he had inside of him? Was this the extent of who he was? Not even a new ability or anything, either. Seriously? Was this actually what he’d gotten? Just a single Gods-cursed point into a single Gods-cursed stat? He checked just to be sure.

Zachys Calador: Level 4

(0/200xp)

Armor Bonus: 6

4 strength

4 dexterity

4 constitution

1 intelligence

3 speed

1 luck

“This is just unbelievable!”

He ran his hands through his hair, trying his best to fight off his sense of self-loathing. What kind of horseshit was this? Strangely, though, his anger cooled off rather quickly as he saw the shining white light indicating he’d gotten a drop. It was something green, though it was always difficult to know what he was looking at while it was shining.

He reached down to pick it up, and as he did so, he felt as though he finally understood what “speed” actually did. His limbs felt like they could move a bit faster and easier. Despite his Gods-awful level up, Zach at least felt some degree of satisfaction knowing that, piece by piece, he was slowly coming to learn and understand more things. In this case, he was fairly sure he had worked out the answer to a question he’d asked Fluffles on the day he left his apartment.

“Which stat is more important for how fast you can ride a bike or run?” Zach had asked him. “Strength or speed?”

Fluffles had given him a bogus answer, which meant he either didn’t know or didn’t feel like saying. But now, Zach was pretty sure he solved the problem himself. It seemed that strength was the physical strength of his body, dexterity made him more nimble, balanced, and responsive, and speed controlled how quickly he could move his limbs, or even his torso and other parts of his body such as his head. Therefore, when it came to jumping, it was strength, running, it was speed, and riding a bike, it was likely a combination of them both. Though he still wasn’t one-hundred-percent sure on the bike one. The faster you pedaled a bike, the less strength you needed and more speed you required. Or maybe that was just how he imagined it. Ah well, it was definitely a bit of both: that was for sure.

“Let’s see what I got.”

Zach picked up the item dropped by Skelly Grunt B and then walked over to his safe little corner to inspect it. His mood soured somewhat as it certainly didn’t look very useful. In fact, it looked like a bag of potato chips, only in this case, the bag was green all over except on the very front, which was decorated with a colorful, cute little cartoon illustration of a dancing skeleton.

Skelly Chips: picked up by Zachys Calador.

A delicious snack; apple-flavored. Each bag contains 110 calories.

“Well, that’s that,” he grumbled bitterly. Then he sighed. In truth, he was really hungry. He’d expended a lot of energy, and lately, any time he wanted to eat something, he had to share with his damn cat, who had an insatiable appetite. Looking down at the bag of chips, he went to open it, then paused, becoming paranoid.

He estimated he had at least another two minutes before the Skelly Grunt mobs respawned, so gently, practically on his tiptoes, he walked over to the ridiculously narrow passage that led from here to the area with the stairs he’d come down. Very carefully, he looked into it, seeing it completely empty. Then he walked back over to his safe area.

With extreme care, he pinched an end of the bag with one hand, and then the other end with his opposite hand. Very slowly, so as not to make even the slightest sound, he—

“SOMEONE HAVE SKELLY CHIPS!” cried Fluffles.

“Gods-dammit!”

The cat came soaring into this little spawn area so fast that he actually skidded along the ground, then turned to Zach and took off like a rocket in his direction. He ran so fast that he looked like he was hopping instead of running, his paws almost a blur.

“Zach get Skelly Chips?” he asked, his eyes practically glowing.

“Fluffles, I’m starving.”

“Fluffles get half!” the cat insisted. “I love Skelly Chips. They are Fluffles’ favorite.”

“You said that about Frog Snax!”

Fluffles meowed. “Now it Skelly Chips. Zach starve Fluffles. I starving!”

He knew he wasn’t going to win this argument, so he poured half the chips into his hands and prepared to set them down, knowing that Fluffles wouldn’t mind eating something without a plate even if it touched the ground. Annoyingly, Fluffles demanded that he add two more chips to “his share,” claiming that Zach’s share was slightly more.

“Zach try to cheat Fluffles. I was a good cat and was sleeping and now I get to have Skelly Chips.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

To Zach’s delight, they actually did taste amazing. What was it with mob-food and extremely good flavor? Two items was too soon to call it a “pattern,” but if it happened a third time with a new type of food, he was just going to assume that anything dropped by a mob was gourmet.

Fluffles devoured the chips, told Zach to “keep level,” and then turned around to leave just as the mobs respawned, which meant of course he drew aggro on his way out. Zach sighed as he watched the two skeletons growl at Fluffles, who growled right back at them as if he were taking it personally.

“Go away, mean, stupid skelly!” Fluffles said with a hiss. Two bolts of lightning streaked down from the ceiling, and Zach’s eyes popped open so wide he feared they’d get stuck. He stared in utter incredulity as Fluffles hit the nearest skeleton for 1,241 damage and the other for 1,187, stealing both kills from Zach, which meant he’d now have to wait five more minutes again for them to spawn. But he didn’t even care about that, because he was too busy gawking at how much Gods-damned damage the cat had just done. That was just outrageous. It was outrageous!

“Fluffles sorry,” the cat said with a meow. “They come back soon. Zach okay?”

“Y-yeah,” he said. Then, as the cat turned to leave, his eyes widened a second time. “Whoah, whoah, wait! Fluffles, come back!”

“What wrong?” he asked, having been just about to slip his head into the narrow passageway.

Zach sprinted over to the spot where Skelly Grunt A had just died. “Is that...” He released a cry of delight. There was a brown satchel, and inside the satchel were coins: gold coins. There was a 1,000 coin in there mixed in with a bunch of 100 and 50 coins. “Wow! Fluffles, you are a great cat. You just made me so much m—”

“Hurray!” Fluffles cried. “Fluffles rich!”

He bit the satchel, and upon contact with his mouth, it vanished into thin air. “I add to Fluffles’ account!” he announced. Then, the cat ran out of the room, presumably back to the swimming area, and likely went back to sleep, all while Zach was left standing there like an idiot.

“Time for me to start making my way deeper into this place,” he said, shaking his head. “After these next two, I need to get a move on.”

Zach went back to his safe area and took a seat while he waited for the skeletons to come back. Thinking things over once more, he at last made up his mind: after he wiped this next spawn, he was going to continue onwards and head deeper into the dungeon. Unless he wanted to spend the next few days living off cave water and skelly chips, he needed to go deeper. So that was what he would do. Somewhere down there was a boss he had to kill, and he planned to kill it.