The waterfall tossed Vivi from collision to collision just as violently as it had before. She held her breath and kept her eyes closed. Instead of fighting the current, Vivi hugged Eem and protected herself with ether. Lucius, being a spirit, had a better view of their surroundings. He focused ether to the spots Vivi was about to get hit in.

The strategy worked well. Vivi felt each impact, but she didn't sustain wounds. A coating of ether worked like armor and a cushion combined. Even dropping down the waterfalls didn't hurt that much. Being maxed out helped a lot, though they did exhaust over five hundred wisps.

The last waterfall dropped Vivi into the lake, where a shark was immediately alerted of her presence. She swiped it in half with Lucius's claws.

She held Eem above water. "Eem? Are you okay?"

The fiend nodded excitedly. Vivi had protected her well.

"Vivi, above us!" Lucius shouted.

Huh? Vivi thought. She looked up to see something falling from the waterfall. It was Aang.

The Union leader crashed into the lake five feet from Vivi. Water splashed on her face. She quickly took a defensive stance, prepared for whatever Aang was about to try.

Aang's head popped above water. He blinked water out of his eyes and pulled hair out of his face. Vivi waited for him to say something.

Aang didn't speak. He swam past Vivi, toward shore.

This damned demon! Vivi cursed in her head. She headed toward shore, carrying Eem with her. The fiend could have swum on her own, of course, but Vivi didn't want to risk having sharks appearing out of nowhere.

By the time she made it to land, Aang was already standing with his shirt off. He whipped the air with his shirt to shake water out of it with force. Then he calmly put the shirt back on, as if nothing odd had happened.

"You look like a stray cat," Aang said with a slight smile.

Vivi was frowning. "Are you going to tell me to head back?"

"No," Aang said. "I am your ally. If you allow me to be one. My father died in the main dungeon twenty-five years ago; I still need to find his body."

Vivi raised her eyebrows. Aang seemed to be honest. "Wait… Really?" she asked.

"That's what my mother told me," Aang said. "And research seems to claim that it's true. My parents were a part of the strongest gang of their time. Their disappearance is still publicly considered a mystery."

"Your mom and dad were both elites in Zand twenty years ago?" Vivi asked, surprised. "How old are you?"

"I'm thirty-one. I was born in Zand. This facility is all I know. Very few nimrods have been in Zand longer than me. I'm not even a criminal; I'm here because my parents decided to give birth in prison. I only know the outside world from stories, and from the few outside raids I've performed."

"Is your mother alive?" Vivi asked.

"Gone," Aang said. "She was one of the best rogue thieves Zand has seen. She protected me until I was seven years old. Then she just… disappeared."

"She escaped?"

"I think she got killed," Aang said. "She was always away, gathering food and ether to pay for our apartment. One day, an enemy gang member came home instead, claiming she had betrayed me. She never came back."

"You survived alone as a seven-year-old?"

Aang looked amused. "No. I joined the enemy gang, performing slave labor, being abused by their members on the premise that I had my mother's debts to take care of. I endured that for four years. When I was eleven, I poisoned their food, killing off most of my abusers. Then I lived as a lone nimrod for a while."

Stolen novel; please report.

Wow… Vivi thought. And she believed she'd lived a tough life. "That's… awful."

Aang shrugged. "Just the way life goes when you're born in Zand."

The cavern was silent for a second. Eem watched them curiously.

"If you're telling me this to scare me, I won't head back," Vivi said. "I still need to earn over sixty thousand ether. My debts scare me a lot more."

"Whether you want to hunt here is up to you," Aang said. "The Stewards most likely won't catch you. I've hunted here multiple times. The deepest I got was down to the third level before the monsters got utterly impossible."

Vivi paused. "You've hunted all the way to the third level?"

"That was three years ago," Aang said. "I quickly figured that the dungeon is impossible."

"So why are you here?" Vivi asked.

Aang unsheathed his sword. A two-runed adamantite greatsword—probably Rensfig's work. "I'll help you hunt," he said. "Perhaps with your runeswords, my dad's goal can actually be fulfilled."

Lucius was frowning at Aang from Vivi's core. "He wants to be our hunting partner?"

He's a second elevation hunter, Vivi thought. He could be a big help. And he seems trustworthy.

"But what about ether distribution?" Lucius asked. "He's looking to profit off of us."

Vivi thought about it. Before she could speak, however, Aang said, "I'll give you most of the ether. The sword you sold us is worth a lot more than five thousand ether. You deserve to have your debts cleared. I only need enough to keep replenishing what I dim out. A tenth of what we'll kill?"

Is that good enough? Vivi asked. That's an amazing deal if you ask me.

"Ugh…" Lucius said. "Fine. It's a good deal. Let's work with him."

Vivi nodded. "I'll trust you. Let's hunt."

Aang looked serious already.

"Eem, you'll have the same job you always have," Vivi said. "Search for metals. There must still be more here. Can you do that?"

Eem was frowning at Aang. She wasn't happy to leave Vivi with the Union leader. But after Vivi patted her in the head and asked again, Eem saluted.

Vivi and Aang stepped into the dungeon. Aang eyed their surroundings, noting that the first room was cleared. "The first level is great for ether," he said. "The skeletons drop more than the amalgamations."

"I've already cleared the first level," Vivi said.

"Even the giant skeleton?" Aang asked.

"Yes," Vivi said. "It dropped a basic ascension skill. I only left the upper two levels untouched."

"Smart," Aang said. "I skipped the giant skeleton entirely. It was too difficult to beat. If you were strong enough to defeat it alone, we'll easily make it to the third level."

Well, I did almost die to it, Vivi thought.

They stepped downstairs, into the second level. Lucius pushed ether into her eyes, helping Vivi see. The blob-like monster had returned to the same corner where it was last time. The halves had combined into one.

"The second level is a short gimmick level," Aang said. "The amalgamations are a pain to fight, but they're not too difficult once you understand how they work. Stabbing attacks work a lot better than slashes."

"I think I have something that works even better," Vivi said.

She summoned her hammer and pushed ether through the strife runes. The asmite hammer glowed, lighting up the room's disgusting walls with a lot more clarity. The amalgamation dropped from the ceiling and attacked Vivi.

She swung her hammer sideways.

The red-hot asmite smashed the amalgamation into the wall. The gooey matter splattered all over, and the heads were crushed with a satisfying crunch, as if Vivi had crushed a roach.

Aang blinked next to her. "That… That's destructive."

Vivi grinned. Lucius collected the ether from the kill. In total, the amalgamation's different heads combined dropped 347 ether.

"Are there traps on the second level?" Vivi asked.

"There were traps, but their activation mechanisms were clogged up with goo," Aang said. "This whole level is corrupted. Let me move first. I'll protect you from ambushes."

Sure… Vivi thought, letting Aang do as he wished. He moved into the next room, and the way down continued.

Aang's fighting style was a lot rougher than Vivi's. Which said a lot, considering Vivi's style was already barbaric. He dealt with the amalgamations by piercing each head with the tip of his sword. With all of the heads dead, the amalgamation collapsed.

Vivi and her hammer killed the amalgamations faster, but only if she managed a clean hit. Swinging the hammer was difficult in the tighter caverns. And if Vivi missed, the amalgamations had a free chance to counterattack.

In these cases, Aang covered Vivi's weak spots, forcing the amalgamations back. His help was admittedly useful. Vivi didn't need to lure monsters one by one. She and Aang could simply enter the next room to kill the amalgamations there. He stayed true to his word, letting Vivi collect ether from nine out of ten kills.

The second level only had one other monster on top of the amalgamations. Aang called them corrupted skeletons. The skeletons were similar to the ones on the first level, except these ones were fully covered in the gooey slime that coated the amalgamations. They were resistant to blunt force and nearly immune to swords.

But they were far slower than the skeletons below, letting Vivi wind up the heaviest attacks her war hammer could muster.

The burning asmite crushed their ribs, burning the goo. If the hammer didn't crush the corrupted skeletons' spines in one blow, it knocked them to the ground for an easy follow-up. Vivi's hammer was so powerful in the second level that monsters were trivialized without issues. The corrupted skeletons granted her eight hundred ether with each kill. She didn't need her ascension skill at any point, saving ether.

After an hour of descending, Vivi's debt lowered to 48961, and the stairway to the third level loomed ahead.

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