Jeremy sighed. He was growing very tired of being trapped in this small cave with nothing but Flint and Squeak for company. He eyed the tiny red insect. “This is the one that burrows into my body to lay eggs that hatch and eat me from the inside... Here goes.”

  It took two days for his parasite resistance to gain another point and his body to eject the new invaders.

  The last insect was the rot-curse roach—a hand-sized blue and yellow striped cockroach. Like the mentipede, he didn't understand how its rot-curse attack worked, so it made him nervous.

  “If it weren't a complete waste of time, I'd tell you how bad an idea this is,” Flint said.

  “You're right,” Jeremy said. “It is a waste of your time.” He put the curse roach on his calf. His tough skin resisted the roach's bite at first, but soon it broke through, and a rapidly spreading black rot formed in his calf.

  He went back to working on his labyrinth puzzle. He'd gotten past the tenth square of the labyrinth before monsters overwhelmed his adventurer, again. He released the puzzle quickly to avoid losing his fingers and started over. Again.

  The black rot expanded to cover Jeremy's entire calf. Suddenly weak and sick, he collapsed, threw up on the floor, and passed out. When he woke up, he'd gained a skill, Curse Resistance: 1. Black rot covered his calf, but the rot appeared to have stopped spreading. A day later, it receded, and his resistance went up to 3. In another day and ten curse roaches later, his curse resistance was up to 4, and the curse roaches were no longer a problem.

  He took out his red crayon and wrote on the wall:

  I have accustomed myself to these dungeon monsters. It wasn't easy, but I did it. I am continuing my journey through the dungeon.

  Jeremy packed his things, put on his poison cloak, and left the cave.

  The dungeon creepies attacked him immediately, but were unable to hurt him. Jeremy let his poison cloak do its work. By the time they'd stopped attacking, Jeremy had gained some dungeon coin and another level. No healing potions though.

  “Book,” Jeremy said, embarrassed he hadn't thought of this earlier. “What boss or bosses are on the third level of the dungeon, and how do I fight them?”

  The boss monsters on every level of the dungeon are ferocious adventurer-killing machines. They should be approached with extreme caution, preferably with, at the very least, a complete team of one fighter, rogue, and spellcaster. It would be far better to have a full complement of ten...

  Jeremy slammed Book shut. “Book doesn't know.”

  “So it would seem,” Flint responded. “Let me point out, yet again, that it is not too late to leave this dungeon.”

  Searching the passageway revealed nothing.

  Jeremy approached the fork in the passageway and sent Squeak to explore. To the left, Squeak found a vast lake, maybe the size of a football field, but no signs of life.

  To the right, several humanoid skeletons rested near the entrance of a large cave. In the center of this cave was a structure made from an unknown paper-like substance, around thirty feet wide and five feet tall.

  “Want to bet this is some kind of hive?” Jeremy asked.

  “No.”

  If the insects were similar to what he'd just dealt with, they would sense if Squeak approached. From the size of the hive, he suspected there were a lot of them.

  “I would guess they'll all wake up and attack you when you enter the cave,” Flint said. “You've worked hard to raise your resistance, but can you handle millions of them?”

  Jeremy didn't know. “What do you suppose is in the lake?” He activated Sneak and Danger Sense and took the left fork.

  Nothing emerged from the lake when he arrived. Danger Sense lit up the lake, but the lake was calm, too calm. Not a sign of what lived beneath the surface. There was no question that a monster or monsters lived in the lake, but what?

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  Thanks to Jeremy's training, he could hold his breath for far longer than a normal human.

  Possibly as long as half an hour.

  He thought furiously about what he had that could be of use in the lake: Spear? Check. Healing potions? None. Bow and arrows? Useless in the water. His gun? It might be helpful if he had any idea how to shoot it. But he didn't.

  He grabbed a poisoned arrow, putting it through his belt next to his sword. He wrapped his charmed rope around his waist, stuck his dagger between his teeth so he could get at it quickly, grabbed a large rock, and used his charmed rope to tie it to his waist. Then, after activating Sneak, he silently slipped into the water and sank into the depths.

  The first thing he noticed about the lake was that the water was ice cold; the second was that the lake was deep, its bottom concealed in murky darkness.

  He sank deeper into the lake.

  There was movement in the depths.

  Flint appeared beside him. “Let me suggest that you create one of your magic lights as far in front of you as possible. Yes, I realize you've never cast a light underwater, but since mana powers it, that shouldn't matter.”

  Multiple attempts later, Jeremy created a dim light in front of him, revealing an armored snake or eel-like monster the height and width of a bus, and as long as three buses connected end to end.

  The monster didn't respond to Jeremy's light. As he approached, he realized the monster had no eyes. Instead, it used many long, thin tentacles coming out of its head and mouth to sense its surroundings. It moved towards the surface on a collision course with Jeremy.

  Jeremy used Identify.

  Uinguit. Lord of the Deep. The second most dangerous boss monster on the third floor of the dungeon.

  “Don't move a muscle,” Flint said. “It will sense any movement in the water and be on you in an instant. It is also tracking you by smell and will find you soon, regardless. If you intend to form a plan of attack, now would be an excellent time.”

  Indeed.

  Unfortunately, without eyes and covered by thick bony armor plates, this monster had no apparent weaknesses. As Uinguit approached, Jeremy released his stone, watching it sink deeper into the lake. Uinguit grabbed the stone with its tentacles, only to release it again.

  Long tentacles shot towards Jeremy. Flint groaned, realizing what Jeremy had planned. It wasn't a good plan, but, as usual, there were no good plans.

  Uinguit's tentacles touched, then wrapped around Jeremy. He cut the tentacles with his sword. An instant later, hundreds more tentacles grabbed him. He grunted, releasing much-needed air as Uinguit gave him a nasty shock, on par with the lightning bugs. It figured Uinguit would be a giant monster electric eel.

  The days Jeremy had spent getting used to lightning bugs saved him from paralysis and certain death. Other tentacles attempted to jab him with sharp bony tips that Jeremy suspected were poisoned, but they could not penetrate his spider silk cloak and toughened skin.

  Jeremy held still, pretending to be paralyzed as Uinguit pulled him into its mouth, which, not surprisingly, contained many rows of sharp teeth. Inward-pointing barbs covered its throat. If he got swallowed, there would be no coming out again.

  Jeremy ordered his spear to extend to its maximum length to impale the monster's throat, but the spear refused to extend. Perhaps because he was in the middle of a battle or something stupid like that, he'd been afraid that would happen.

  Knowing he'd get only one chance at this, he waited. As Uinguit bit down, Jeremy braced the butt of his spear against the teeth of the monster's lower jaw so that the tip of the spear was driven deep into the roof of its mouth. It let out a choked, booming roar that rattled Jeremy's bones and hurt his ears.

  He grabbed his poisoned arrow, but before he could stab the monster's mouth, Uinguit's tentacles zapped him several more times and constricted, squeezing him so hard Jeremy was afraid they'd crush him.

  Uinguit slammed him against the teeth of its lower jaw, bruising his body and cutting into skin not protected by the spidersilk cloak. The second time it slammed him against the teeth of its lower jaw, he stabbed the poisoned arrow into what passed for its gums, cutting his hand on its teeth as he did so.

  Its tentacles released him. The monster's throat expanded as it inhaled, creating a powerful current to force Jeremy down its throat.

  Jeremy threw out his rope, attaching it to his spear. Previous experience had shown him he couldn't attach his rope to living beings, but he could attach any inanimate object, including his oversized spear currently lodged in the monster's mouth. The rest of the rope was still wrapped around his waist, preventing him from being swallowed.

  He pulled out a flask of spider poison, removed the cap, and released the flask so it shot down the monster's throat. He hated to use up his poison like this, but couldn't think of another way to kill such an immense monster.

  Uinguit turned and, with truly impressive speed for a being so large, dove into the depths. The current flung Jeremy to the side and out of the monster's mouth. He released his charmed rope from his spear and swam back to the surface.

  His head came out of the water, and he gasped for breath. Before he could recover, he felt an immense surge in the lake currents from below.

  Uinguit was coming.