Screaming. It screamed so loud!

I removed another two tentacles that lashed out at me as it tried to retreat further down into the cracked rock. My feet landed on its side, close to one of its eyes. I stabbed down as tentacles flayed in the small space.

The eye popped as it screamed louder, suddenly jerking down.

I leaned in, not letting it remove the burning tip, pushing down with all of my weight.

A smaller tentacle slammed into my side, but the armored scales took the impact and I only shifted slightly, still gripping my spear with everything I had. I latched onto the tentacle with my left hand, the crystal burning through it as I squeezed.

The smell of blood, ooze, and dust surrounded me as everything went silent.

Then it moved.

Twisting underneath me, it tried to get its mouth pointed up. I slammed into the wall of the crack, and my spear cut through it as it turned, doing my work for me. After a moment, it launched itself upward, impaling itself deeper on my spear.

It shuddered twice, then stopped.

[You have earned experience from combat.]

"What just happened?" I asked the air.

I yanked my spear back, still standing on parts of the creature, which was clearly dead.

"You killed yourself on my spear." The dead thing didn't reply, but the burning smell of rubber lingered.

All I wanted to do was leap upward out of the space, but… its heart. Last time I hadn't gotten the one I wanted, and maybe this one would give me a boost to my skills.

With a growl I got to work, digging deeper into the mess under my feet and trying to find the heart.

It became clear why it had acted that way the more I cut into it. The crack under it continued to narrow, and it rested on a large rock stuck in the center of the crack. It had nowhere else to go without getting out from under me.

Still, it felt dumb to me, but what did I know, besides still being the one breathing? Yanking out the heart almost made me gag. The whole thing smelled wrong, and the smelly ooze filled the inside of its body. It was one step removed from the ichor with the spiders.

Closing my eyes, I forced myself to bite into the treasure.

It took several moments to place the taste. Salt Water Taffy, maybe, but a weird flavor, that might be trying to be banana.

I didn't like it. Not at all. But that didn't stop me from finishing it as my stomach begged me to keep eating. My ears twitched, and pain lanced through each of them, leaving me gasping.

[You have devoured a level 40 Deep Rock Cephalopod, and gained insight into Augmented Senses. Augmented Senses - II. You have increased senses of vision, smell, taste, touch, and sound. Your sense of smell has increased and unlocked the ability to track your prey by a scent trail. Your sense of sound has increased and you can feel sound vibrations through your skin. You have gained the ability to understand whether something is prey. By focusing, you can see minute details.]

Every bit of movement caused my ears to pick up the sound. From the beating of my heart to my breath, the volume felt like it was too high. I barely breathed for several seconds, trying to get it under control before I felt like my ears wouldn't rupture. Then everything settled.

Shaking my head like I had water in my ears, I launched myself upward, leaping toward the top of the crack. I landed on the edge of the rock. My feet scraped a pebble and I heard it clearly.

From the holes above, whispers of a conversation about loot and treasure reached me, but I couldn't completely make it out. I took a moment and snacked on some meat, to try to get my stomach to settle and get my ears to stop aching.

[You have defeated the boss of the Across the Surface challenge of this dungeon.]

Great, that meant we could get the heck out of here.

I slowly made my way over to the far tunnel, giving myself a few moments of recovery before leaping the rest of the way. The stone tunnel rose, and light streamed in from the short distance ahead of me.

The sound of Abby and Mary talking grew louder.

"She's fine," said Abby. "Probably on her way now. Otherwise, she wouldn't have a chest like us."

"Well, if she doesn't show up, what do we do? I don't want to leave without her."

"I'm coming," I called out, and the room went silent as I stepped inside, blinking.

Four treasure chests sat in the center. Three were already open, with Cass staring off into space. I used Insight on her.

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[Cass, Hunter, Sharp Eye, Haste, Level 27, Unknown.]

I paused, studying the new format of my Insight, then used it on the others.

[Mary, Hunter, Expanded Senses, Rush Attack, Level 30, Unknown.]

[Abby, Sentinel, Shield, Level 27, Unknown.]

It needed to get rid of the Unknown for how humans tasted. I wasn't going to eat a human.

"Congrats on the levels," I said, moving closer to the treasure chest that Abby stood next to. "Is Cass okay?"

I noticed the smell lingering in the room, coming from each of them. A slime-like substance dotted each of them in various locations. Cass even had some in her hair. Mentally I shivered, and then thought about the ooze that had to be covering me.

"She's figuring out how to allocate her stats," said Mary, chuckling at Cass' blank stare. "We all remember your warning about growing more than 10% at once. I guess her free stats are pretty high, and she can't do what she wanted just yet."

I nodded and focused on the loot.

[Treasure chest for Alex.]

I touched the lid, and it snapped open. Inside was a small stone that I tried to pick up, but touching it caused it to dissolve in my hand.

[Treasure earned de minimus: You have earned 100 credits.]

"What the heck are credits?" I asked, though I doubted anyone had an answer for me.

"Credits?" asked Abby, who shook her head before smiling. "I received a recipe on how to make imbued food."

Mary shook her head at Abby. "My new knife grip is amazing. Cass got a piece of armor."

"Not a bad haul, but the more important thing is no more cap on your levels." To be honest, I was surprised that each of them hadn't leveled more. Then again, they hadn't been at the cap long. A dark archway stood on the far wall, and I moved in that direction. "Cass, we're getting out of here."

She blinked and then smiled when she noticed me. "Yeah, let's get out of here. I really want to get cleaned up."

"Same. I'll go dancing in the rain with you if you want."

"We all might need to," grumbled Mary, poking a wet spot on her leather.

I marched through the archway and found myself back in the tunnel that led to the main cavern. My senses snapped into place outlining my territory. A group of people were in the main cavern, while a couple hung around near the opening to the outside.

I hurried out of the way of the others and continued on to the big cavern. The fire was still going, but it looked dark outside. A few people were sleeping already.

Dengu spotted me first and chirped. That drew the attention of most of the others around the campfire, including Benny. He smiled as we marched out of the tunnel. Then the smell must have hit the others, since everyone's eyes grew wide.

"We're going to go get drenched in the rain," I said with a smirk.

"I hope so," said Hammy, who stood close to Benny. "You kinda smell."

Hawk, John, and my father all turned to look at us.

"How did it go?" asked my father.

"Give us a second." The rain still fell in sheets, and I stretched my senses along the edges of my territory outward.

Something moved near the area of the beetles that itched at the back of my mind. If the weather wasn't so bad, I'd go off in that direction. Instead, I marched straight out into the dark rain.

"Wait!"

I ignored Hawk's voice and went for it.

It slammed into me like a hammer, and I almost stumbled. Instantly, all the ooze was gone, but I quickly stepped back, stopping Mary from following.

"Nope, nope, nope… That might damage you."

"I tried to warn you," said Hawk, checking me out for an injury.

I stepped back beyond the water that ran off the side of the mountain and into the general rain. That reduced the pressure pretty substantially, and I glanced around. The moon wasn't out, and the pitch-black clouds covered the stars. There wasn't a hint of thunder or lightning, which was a positive.

I headed back to the cavern, rushing through the sheet from the mountain.

"Okay, there is a large amount of water coming off the mountain, but beyond that it isn't as bad. Still, anything you don't want damaged you might want to leave inside, and that first step is a doozy."

"I stink," Mary grumbled. "Abby, can you put up a shield to get us beyond the mountain water?" A golden shield appeared, parting the sheet, and all three of them raced out before the shield fell.

"So is it safe enough for us to go in?" asked my father.

"Yes," I said, then explained everything that had happened from my point of view, including levels gained and needing to split the party.

"Okay, so we'll break everyone into small groups and potentially have one person who's broken through the cap with each. That will help with that last boss."

"I don't think that the bottom boss is supposed to be beaten, just that someone needs to make it to the other side. So they need to be quick and be able to see in low light. Remember, you can only do each path once."

While I wanted to go check out the beetle problem, that rain made me hold off. My clothing was already soaked, and I wanted that to dry. Running around in the rain didn't feel like a great time, and whatever it was would wait. Or not, and then it wouldn't be a problem to investigate anymore.

"I'm going to get dry by the fire; you guys do what you're going to do. I might go back in solo and see what the options are, but not right now," I paused and turned back to them. "How long were we gone? Just part of the day?"

"Yeah, the sun's down," said Hawk, who turned to watch for the others returning.

I sensed them standing not far beyond the overhang, probably trying to get the smelly stuff off.

I shook my head and headed back to the fire.

My father left Hawk and walked beside me. "I'm glad to see you're okay."

"Yeah, like I said it wasn't anything for me. They made some dumb calls, but learned from them and didn't die."

That awkwardness still lay between us, and I didn't know how to fix it.

"I should have told you about Catherine," he blurted. "I'm sorry I didn't trust that you'd listen to us about what you don't remember."

"I understand where you and the others are coming from. Especially after the crash, I felt very disconnected from Earth." I stopped walking and let out a sigh, wishing that could fix everything. "Even more so from everyone else when I didn't get a class. Not knowing was probably the right thing… but it doesn't make any of this easy."

"I wish you could remember everything, but I'm thankful you don't. You were so angry at her, especially after the divorce." He shook his head, staring off into the light from the fire in the distance. "You had an ugly fight with her."

Something clicked in my head, and I could almost hear her words. "She accused me of being like you, instead of so detached like her."

He chuckled. "Yeah, she didn't like that you had big emotions."

"It still sucks that she bailed on us."

The look on his face hardened. "We don't know what happened. I've tried to get more out of Jennifer, but she just repeats the same story, almost like she rehearsed it."

"Why though?"

"That's the question."

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