The passage narrowed as they walked, the ceiling dropping low enough that Logan had to duck in places. Thin veins of pale crystal ran through the stone, glowing faint blue wherever they caught what little light existed down here.
Roots hung from the ceiling too, thick and pale, twisting around the crystal veins like they’d grown into each other over a very long time.
The air was cold and smelled like wet rock. Somewhere ahead, something skittered.
Billy’s blades slowed to a careful hum. "Company."
Five shapes came skittering out of the dark, each one about the size of a large dog, their bodies made of jagged crystal plates instead of shell.
```
[ Level 8 Crystal Crawler (Tier-1 / Normal) ]
```
They moved fast, low to the ground, legs clicking against stone. Logan raised a hand.
’Encouragement.’
```
[ Encouragement used on Billy ]
-50 MP
Attack +10% | Defense +10% for 60 seconds
```
Billy didn’t wait for them to close the distance. He rolled forward, blades flashing, and cut through the first Crawler before it even got close.
The second and third came at him from either side. He spun once, low, and both of them fell in pieces. Crystal shards scattered across the floor.
The last two hesitated, which was the wrong call. Sky Pierce Shot took one through what passed for a head. Billy caught the last one on a backswing without even looking at it.
Five Crawlers. Maybe ten seconds.
"Dungeon mobs don’t give Tower Points," Logan said, checking a panel that hadn’t appeared. "Guess the reward’s at the end."
"Fine by me," Billy said, rolling his shoulders. "More reason to keep moving."
They didn’t move right away, though. Logan sat down against the wall and let his MP tick back up for a few minutes, watching Billy do slow laps around the small chamber like he couldn’t stand sitting still.
When Logan felt steady again, they pushed on.
The passage opened into a wider space, walls thick with old cobwebs that stretched from floor to ceiling. Billy rolled straight through them without thinking twice, more interested in the texture under his blades than what might be underneath.
"Billy, wait!" Logan started, but the words came out too late.
The webs tore away in sheets. Behind them, half buried in the dust, sat a small wooden chest.
Logan blinked. "Huh. Good thing you don’t listen."
He knelt down and opened it. Inside sat a single plain ring, silver, with a small dark stone set into the band.
```
[ Storage Ring (10 Slots) Acquired ]
```
Logan turned it over in his hand. A storage ring. He’d read about these in beginner guides, always near the top of every wishlist and never available to anyone who couldn’t afford one.
’Awesome. Now I can store meat and other stuff I get easily.’
He slid it onto his finger and thought about the ring itself. A small window opened, ten empty slots waiting.
"No more carrying by hand and back," Logan muttered, grinning. "This alone was worth the trip down here."
They kept moving. The tunnel sloped down. The crystal veins in the walls grew thicker and brighter, until the whole passage glowed faint blue without needing a torch.
Something long and pale slid across the floor ahead, scales catching the light like broken glass.
```
[ Level 10 Quartzfang Serpent (Tier-1 / Uncommon) ]
```
Four more followed it out of the dark, coiling and uncoiling across the stone.
"These ones bite from a distance," Billy said, already moving.
The first serpent reared back and spat something bright and fast toward him, a shard of crystal venom that hissed through the air.
’That’s a target-based attack.’ Logan’s eyes glinted. "Billy get inside."
Billy didn’t dodge it. He turned and rolled straight through the shimmering wall of Logan’s barrier instead, gone from sight in an instant.
The shard curved, hunting for him, and hit nothing. It cracked against the far wall and dissolved into smoke.
"Huh," Logan said, watching the barrier flicker where the impact had registered. "It really can’t see through."
Billy rolled back out a half second later, already laughing. "Lost me. Not bad, boss."
He didn’t give the serpents time to try again. Wheel Dash carried him through the middle of the group, blades cutting low, and two of them went still before they finished turning around.
The third lunged, and Billy caught it across the throat with a Blade Barrage that didn’t even slow him down.
The last two tried to flank him at once. He ducked one strike, took the other on his shoulder with a hiss of pain, and answered with a spinning cut that ended both of them together.
Logan winced at the hit but didn’t call him back.
[ Restore used on Billy ]
-100 MP
20% HP recovered.
Billy recovered.
Five serpents down. Not as clean as the Crawlers, but nothing close to what the bears had cost them.
They rested again, a bit longer this time. Logan leaned against a crystal outcropping and let his MP climb back up while Billy picked broken shards out of the shoulder joint that had taken the hit.
When they moved again, it was Logan who spotted the next chest, half tucked into a crack in the wall where the crystal grew thickest.
He knelt and opened it. Inside lay a sword, its blade a dull grey shot through with faint lines of the same blue crystal running through the dungeon walls.
```
[ Quartzedge Sword (Tier-1 / Uncommon) Acquired ]
> +10 Attack.
```
Logan turned it over once, then handed it to Billy without much thought. "Your free hand’s been empty this whole time."
Billy took it, testing the weight with a slow swing. "Sling in one hand, sword in the other, and legs that don’t quit. I like where this is going."
```
[ +500 Exp. You have reached level 6. You can distribute 5 stat points. ]
```
He thought it over quickly. A bigger barrier needed more MP behind it, and MP meant Arcane.
He put all five points into Arcane.
```
[ Status ]
Name: Logan Wolf
Class: Caretaker (Normal)
Talent: Boundless Genesis
Level: 6 | Tier: 1
--stats--
HP: 1020/1020
MP: 1500/1500
Attack: 6
Speed: 7
Constitution: 10.2
Arcane: 15
```
Better defense didn’t always mean a bigger shield. Sometimes it meant a shield that lasted longer.
The tunnel narrowed again, then opened into a wide cavern lit by crystal growths thick as tree trunks. Something moved between the columns, fast, and Logan barely caught the shape of it before it vanished again.
```
[ Level 10 Bladeroot Reaper (Tier-1 / Rare) ]
```
"Careful with with them, Billy."
Three of them circled the edges of the cavern, tall and lean, built like something halfway between a person and a tangle of roots. Blades of black crystal jutted from both forearms in place of hands.
"These ones are fast," Billy said, tension creeping into his voice for the first time all day.
Logan raised the barrier before he’d even finished thinking about it.
```
[ Safe Haven activated ]
-200 MP
Barrier Durability: 400
```
’Encouragement.’
```
[ Encouragement used on Billy ]
-50 MP
Attack +10% | Defense +10% for 60 seconds
```
The first Reaper closed the distance almost too fast to track. Billy met it with the sword, catching a blade-arm before it could open his side, and the impact rang out sharp.
The second one came from the flank a half second later. Billy hadn’t finished turning before a black blade caught him across the ribs.
He grunted, staggered, and rolled clear before the third could join in.
"Billy!" Logan was already moving toward the edge of the barrier, Restore half formed on his tongue.
"I’m fine, boss. Stay put." Billy didn’t sound fine. He sounded furious.
He came back in low and fast. Wheel Dash chewed up the ground between them, sword and blade-legs working together in a way Logan hadn’t seen from him before.
The first Reaper lost an arm and then its head in the same motion.
The second and third pressed together now, faster and angrier, cutting at him from both sides at once. Billy took another hit across the back, blood running dark down his side, and didn’t stop moving.
"Restore!"
Logan’s skill reached across the distance and closed some of the damage even as it happened, just enough to keep Billy on his feet.
That was all he needed. He ducked one strike, drove the sword up through the second Reaper’s chest, and spun into the third with Serrated Rampage before it could react to losing its partner.
Six blades and a length of crystal steel tore through it in one pass.
```
[ 3x Bladeroot Reaper (Tier-1/Rare) killed. ]
```
Billy stood there a moment, breathing hard. The gash on his side and the one across his back were already starting to close on their own, the way Rare-rank units seemed to manage.
He’d also reached level 7 from the fight alone.
Logan dropped the barrier and ran over anyway. "Let me look at that." He didn’t wait for permission. ’Restore.’
The wounds closed most of the way, and Billy rolled his shoulder, grinning through what was clearly still some pain.
"Told you I was fine."
"You were bleeding out of two different places."
"Details."
Logan shook his head, but there wasn’t much heat in it. He thought about Billy’s stats instead, still there to be spent.
Speed. Billy was already fast, but faster meant fewer hits landing on him in the first place. For a unit built the way he was, speed hit like extra attack too.
He put all five points into Speed.
```
[ Razor Blade Ranger ]
Name: Billy
Level: 7 | Tier: 1
Rank: Rare
HP: 1500/1500
MP: 1500/1500
Attack: 20
Speed: 20
Constitution: 15
Arcane: 15
```
They rested longer after that one. Logan checked Billy over twice more before he was satisfied, and Billy let him, which said more about how hard that fight had actually been than anything he’d admit out loud.
One mistake, and he would have died.
"There’s the path. Let’s go, boss."