The cavern narrowed back into a tunnel, and the crystal light dimmed the deeper they went.
A chest sat in the middle of the path ahead, plain and wooden, sitting out in the open like it had been left there on purpose.
"Nice." Logan walked towards it and reached for the lid.
KACHA!
Teeth closed around his hand.
The chest convulsed, wood splitting apart into a mouth lined with rows of jagged fangs, and it bit down before Logan could even process what was happening.
```
[ Level 10 Mimic (Tier-1 / Rare) ]
```
Pain exploded up his arm, worse than anything he’d felt yet. The Mimic thrashed its whole body, and Logan felt something give way at the wrist.
Then he was flying, thrown clear across the tunnel, and he hit the ground still screaming.
"MOTHER FUCKER!"
He looked down at his arm. Where his hand should have been, there was nothing but a ragged, bleeding stump.
His vision went white at the edges. For a second, all he could hear was his own heartbeat, too loud and too fast.
Billy came down from above like something falling out of the sky, his blades no longer smooth but serrated now, catching what little light there was.
"Serrated Rampage."
He hit the Mimic before it had finished turning toward Logan again. Six ragged blades tore through wood and teeth and whatever passed for its body in one furious pass, and it didn’t get up.
The chest went still, splinters and broken fangs scattered across the stone. A moment later it stopped twitching entirely and settled back into the shape of an ordinary wooden box.
Billy was at Logan’s side before the dust finished settling. "Boss. Boss, look at me."
Logan couldn’t stop staring at his arm.
’Restore.’
The skill answered, and the ragged stump slowly closed over. The bleeding stopped as the wound sealed itself shut.
But the hand didn’t come back. Restore could close a wound. It couldn’t grow one back.
Logan sat there for a long moment, breathing hard, staring at what was left of his right hand.
"I’m okay," he said finally, though his voice shook. "I’m okay. Get the chest."
Billy didn’t move at first, blades still spinning too fast, still angry. Then he made himself walk over to the ruined-looking box and popped the lid.
"Boss, I think we got just the stuff we needed." He said it slow, like he was trying to keep his voice level for both their sakes.
Logan pushed himself up against the wall, cradling his arm.
"We got four potions," Billy went on. "Two HP potions, two MP potions. And there’s also a scroll."
"A scroll?" Logan was moving before he’d finished the thought, ignoring the ache in his arm to get a look.
He pulled it out and unrolled it with his good hand.
```
[ Blueprint: Mounted Stone-Arrow Crossbow (Tier-1 / Common) ]
```
"Yes." The word came out cracked, but he meant it. "We got a blueprint. A weapon blueprint."
The main quest flashed through his mind, the one about the Undead. His Tower Minions couldn’t swing a sword worth anything, but a mounted crossbow didn’t need real hands to fire. It needed wood, stone, and something that could pull a trigger.
They could pull a trigger.
"The main quest just got a lot easier," Logan said.
He tucked the scroll into the storage ring, then added the four potions after it, careful with his one good hand.
They didn’t rest long after that. Logan’s arm throbbed under the closed stump, but the bleeding had stopped, and there wasn’t time to sit with it any longer than he had to.
The tunnel opened one last time into a massive cavern. Crystal columns rose floor to ceiling, roots as thick as tower walls wrapped around every one of them.
At the center of it, something stirred.
It rose out of the ground itself, stone and root and crystal fused together into a shape roughly like a standing bear. It stood twice the height of anything they’d fought so far, crystal shards jutting from its back like a broken crown.
```
[ The Crystalroot Warden. Level 10. (Tier-1 / Rare) - Dungeon Boss ]
```
It didn’t roar. It didn’t need to. The ground shook once under its weight, and cracks of blue light spread out from its feet.
"Barrier," Logan said, already casting it.
```
[ Safe Haven activated ]
-500 MP
Barrier Durability: 1000
```
The Warden slammed both fists into the ground a heartbeat later, and a wave of crystal spikes tore up through the stone in every direction. Billy rolled through the gap between two of them, untouched, while the spikes that would have caught Logan shattered harmlessly against the barrier instead.
"Go," Logan said.
Billy went.
He moved faster than anything that big deserved to have to deal with. Sword, sling, and blade-legs worked together in a rhythm that looked less like combat and more like a dance he’d rehearsed a hundred times.
He carved a line across the Warden’s leg, rolled clear of a swinging arm, and put three blades from Sky Pierce Shot into the same crack in its shoulder before it could turn.
The Warden roared this time, and slammed the ground again. Another wave of spikes tore outward.
Logan’s barrier held, but the panel above it flickered, durability draining fast.
He didn’t wait for it to fail. He downed the MP potion in one go, felt the burn of it settle into his chest, and cast the barrier again the instant the old one dropped.
```
[ Safe Haven activated ]
-500 MP
Barrier Durability: 1000
```
That bought Billy the time he needed. He closed in again, faster now, cutting deep gouges across the Warden’s chest with the sword while the sling sent blade after blade into the cracks he’d already opened.
The Warden staggered. Then it went still, crystal shards falling from its shoulders like broken glass, and toppled sideways into the dirt with a crash that shook the whole cavern.
```
[ The Crystalroot Warden (Tier-1/Rare) - Dungeon Boss defeated ]
[ Dungeon Cleared: The Crystalroot Hollow ]
+3000 Tower Points
[ You are the first player to clear a dungeon in this match. +500 Tower Points. ]
Both of them also leveled up once! And Logan’s class also reached level 2!
```
"We did it, boss."
Logan let out a breath he felt like he’d been holding. "Yeah. We did."
The walk back out felt longer than the walk in, though it probably wasn’t. Logan kept his arm close to his chest the whole way, and Billy stayed close enough to catch him if the ache got the better of him.
Daylight found them at the mouth of the small cave. Tucked in the corner where he’d left it hours ago sat the meat, still wrapped in broad leaves.
Logan picked it up with his good hand and slid it into the storage ring.
He was still staring at the empty slots left in the ring when the next panel opened.
```
[ Undead Will Start Attacking in 30 Minutes. ]
```
"Shit." Logan was already moving. "Let’s go. We have to hurry and craft these crossbows. It only needs wood and stone."
He looked at Billy, then at his own bandaged stump, and pushed the pain down where it wouldn’t slow him.
"Fortunately, I already had the Tower Minions farming stone."
’And I will have the summoning and merging fiesta.’ Logan was thrilled as he looked at his Tower Points.