The swamp lay just ahead. The flowers just kind of had a border to which they went, and the field stretched no further, almost as if there was a gardener keeping an eye on the biome somehow.

  The short grass was replaced by watery sludge, tall reeds of darker grass emerging in thick patches. Grown trees were visible too, though different from the ones that were near our base - While those trees were tall pines, these were crooked with large leaves, creating a cool shade to the area around them.

  “The cave is near. Let’s move.” Mark said, and started levitating slightly to the left. And he was moving as fast as he was before. Great. Mr. Levitating Guide Guy apparently didn’t understand the concept of having a body that would actually be slowed down by the ankle-deep water.

  I just watched him disappear, motioned for Crudia to follow, and followed the general direction of where he went.

  The path was slow, but it honestly went by quicker than I thought it would. There were even moments when I thought about just going into the water, just to remember my pre-tournament life, but I decided not to. The water was as clean as a hobo’s feet were, and keeping some kind of color on my skin took priority over fulfilling my aquatic instincts. For now, at least.

  Although I expected to see some new types of enemies, I’ve not seen any yet. No crocodiles, no snakes, no nothing. For an area this live, I think one ought to expect some wildlife that was not the monsters, but there was literally none. Not even insects.

  It was almost as if this whole area was made just for this tournament, and nothing like animals mattered. But what would happen to the area once we left? Would it just get destroyed? Or decay? So weird.

  I probably wouldn’t ever find out the answer to that question.

  Soon enough, we arrived at the entrance to the cave. It loomed large in front of us, eerily silent. The rock was out of place here - giant, like someone took it from somewhere else. Those Carp men were smart enough to use spears, sure, but I’d not seen one that could carry a rock a thousandth of this size.

  Now the question was - was the rock placed here when the Gods made this floor, or was it moved here by whatever was inside. Time to find out!

  I stood at the entrance, trying my best to see inside, but the slope down made a sharp turn to the right, completely blocking my vision. “It’s really dark in there, Crudia. You sure you’ll be fine?”

  “No,” came the immediate answer. Her pitch was high, undoubtably from the stress. “But I’ll go.”

  “You’ll do great. I know you’ve got it in you. And the moment something starts going South, just dash back here. Okay?”

  She smiled at my comment, and nodded. “Okay!”

  Taking a few, deep breaths, she disappeared from my sight, and then I heard soft footsteps walking inside. Talisha soon followed, hovering in the air.

  That was the plan. She’d count the enemies while Crudia walked around and tried finding the boss. Apparently, the [Stealth] skill had a big cooldown and a limited time use, so getting as much info as they could in a short time window was our best bet at going in prepared.

  The silence was nerve-wracking, and I had to hold myself from texting Crudia, lest I distract her. My task was to watch the entrance, but there was just nothing to watch! Except Mark, that is.

  “Hey, Mark. What do you think the boss is? Or the level of it?”

  Jolsted out of thinking again, he looked at me. “I don’t know, Shrimpie. The text said something about a big boss of the Carp Men, so probably a bigger fish? No clue about it or its level though. Don’t forget I’m as new to this as you are, and even if I knew-”

  “You wouldn’t be able to tell me, I know I know. Okay, so we’re going in blind. Any tips? Also, let’s say we beat the boss, then-”

  “There’s no if there, Shrimpie. You two either beat the boss, or we die. That’s what’s in stake, just like it’s been in every other fight you’ve fought. Don’t forget that. We don’t get a second chance.” He took a deep breath. “As for tips, I don’t have many, sadly. You don’t have a good variety of skills, not until you get to level 25 and get a class. I reckon it’s a water-typed monster that’s weak to fire spells, but I don’t see a fire mage here in your party.”

  I was just about to reply, but got interrupted by Crudia texting me in the interface.

  Crudia : Hey, Shrimpie! We’re coming out, and coming in hot! My Stealth ran out, and a few angry fish-men are right on my heels!

  Great. Just what we needed. Hopefully, the Carp men didn’t go for backup.

  I readied my shields, preparing to fight for the second time in a short period of time, my eyes already looking for heat signatures coming from the maw that was the cave opening.

  It only took ten seconds for me to spot Crudia and Talisha. And the horde of Carp men behind her. I used [Analyze] on one of the stinky fish, and the text was the same as before, with one key difference. They were level 5 now, not level 3 like before.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  I supposed it was a good thing that we were here to exterminate them now. Such a horde of enemies would be much harder to kill if they were level 15.

  I used [Dash] for the first time, closing the distance to Crudia. I whooshed in the air, closing the huge distance in a second, appearing in the tighter corridor of the cave in what must have been just a second. And I went to smashing.

  Even though their level increased, they were still the same stupid fish, and I was a new man. Level 14 did have its advantages, even if I didn’t spend as many points on Strength as I wanted.

  I went to town with these guys, absolutely obliterating at least one of them with each swing of my shields, their attacks swatted away, their morale shattered in seconds. These things must have thought themselves real smart by overwhelming their opponents with huge numbers, but they could do nothing against the most glamorous king of the oceans! Nothing if we ignore the few nicks on my skin from their spears, that is, but that can surely be ignored. It would heal up soon anyway.

  Crudia watched from behind me, finally reorienting on the Carp, but she barely managed to kill one or two before I was done with them. Heck, she definitely could have killed them on her own, if she wasn’t so scared. But animalistic instincts were hard to suppress. I understood that.

  “Wow, Shrimpie. You were so cool!” She beamed. “You think the boss will go down as easily?”

  Maybe if she helped. I just scratched my head instead of berating her, however. “I hope not. I came here looking for a fight. This feels like bullying instead.

  Talisha grunted from behind us. “That was twenty of them. I counted like five hundred more, at the very least. Plus the boss. Plus the fact that your abilities are on stupid-long cooldowns, so using them puts you guys at a disadvantage against the boss. Maybe we should seriously retreat and try after getting another party member.”

  “Waiting more will work against us. We discussed this already. We go in now. Don’t be afraid to use the healing potions if push comes to shove.”

  I was walking the corridor before they could argue further. What point was there to all that bickering? We all knew we’d have to go here sooner or later.

  But just as I made the first turn, something stopped me. A protrusion from the rocky wall, not small or large, just something that stuck out to me. I don’t even know why I focused on it - it had no heat signature, but it simply bothered me for some reason.

  What was that? I used [Analyze].

  [Dead] Player - Carzil

  Race - Squirrel Tree Frog

  Level - 7

  Class - None

  Cause of death : Killed by creatures in the Swamp biome

  I felt repulsion and fear. Soon replaced by anger that threatened to seep into my actions, and I knew that if I didn’t suppress it, I’d lose myself again. Finding another player, just to see that they were already dead felt like a gut-punch. Judging by the gasp from Crudia, she’d done the same as me in using [Analyze].

  “How terrible. It’s a player! What happened to them?”

  “Heck if I know. The Carp Men got him, I reckon. I’ll get back at them for this guy. He didn’t deserve this.”

  “Or the boss did.” Mark offered his extremely helpful advice. “You never know with this stuff. Can you loot the player, Shrimpie?”

  The hell did he mean by that? We could loot other players? “You want me to loot a bone? There’s not even any tissue left on it!”

  “Doesn’t matter. The creatures shouldn’t be able to access any player’s inventory, so all should be there. Unless another player came here and looted the corpse before you.”

  Okay, that explained it. I didn’t complain about Mark forgetting to explain yet another rule. He might have a complaint that he did and I just didn’t listen, after all. How unfair. Maybe he should think about how to make his explanations a bit more interesting instead of complaining!

  I tried looting the bone just as I would loot a creature, and a menu did in fact open up, listing several items.

  Gold coins (205)

  Tree armor

  Ghost fish corpse (3)

  Guidal dust

  Wait, what was that?

  Guidal dust

  Item: Alchemical solution

  Did you seriously think that we’d let the spell we used to make humans into guides just go to waste? Does that sound like a pro Green-Earth recycling strategy to you? It definitely does not sound like one to us!

  Purely organic, 100% Earth-grown, this dust is the last item that a human from earth left in this world. In other words, it’s the remains of a guide.

  Now you might be thinking - Ew! Gross! And we wouldn’t blame you for that. We implanted thoughts like that into you, after all. But this dust is really useful, we promise. Maybe you’ll want more if you use it a little bit ;)

  Can be used in Potion Crafting and Spell Enhancing.

  Okay, what the hell. These gods were truly just batshit crazy. Not that I minded the fact that the bodies were put to use - that seemed okay. Better than them dying and just contributing nothing to the success of other players. But the dust?

  It would just motivate players to kill each other. Especially if it was as potent as it sounded. The meaning of the message was not lost on my guide either. He looked ready to puke, in fact. He’d probably do so if he could.

  Better change the topic then. Mark was ugly enough already; no need to deteriorate his visage further by this expression of his. “What about the player’s weapon? Shouldn’t all players have weapons?”

  Mark swallowed the nonexistent bile in his throat. “You can’t loot weapons. They work a bit differently. Yes, don’t even ask - you’re stuck with shields until the end, Shrimpie. I’ll explain more once we get out of here.” He continued looking at his own tab, undoubtedly looking at the dust still.

  Talisha’s arm grasped at the wall, taking in deep breaths, her face even more pained than Mark’s. She looked like she wanted to throw up too. I wished for her that she could.

  I left Mark and Talisha to get themselves together, the two already discussing, and took everything into my inventory, the items sorting into several categories instantly. What a start.

  I turned to look further into the cavern, and my heart started pounding. Crudia went through here, but either her darkvision wasn’t as good as mine, or she was just in too much of a hurry to notice.

  But the corpse I just looted wasn’t the only one. There were bones peeking out of several different spots in front of me, all pure bone and nothing left to tell me more of their original owners. Analyzing them showed me all types of creatures, each different.

  Whatever killed them was here, inside the dungeon-cave. We’d avenge them all, that much I swore.