Arie and I walk through the Capital with the cool night’s breeze at our backs.

We’re really going back to The Great Plains Dungeon.

It’s only been a day or so in the real-world’s time since I even discovered this place even existed. I’m already thoroughly sick of it…

The 2 of us make it to the C-Class gate, down the escalator to the platform, and off to the dungeon in a matter of minutes. We enter the vast open air of The Great Plains and begin our trek.

Walking all the way back to the mutants spawn range doesn’t seem like a proper use of time… Arie has seen me use my Dungeon Walker skill, he even covered for me to hide it from Tripp earlier. I turn to him with a serious look on my face but crack a grin before letting out any words

“Hey, let’s make this a little faster.”

I Watch Arie start to nod. Before he can respond, I place my hand on his shoulder and activate Dungeon Walker.

Less than a second later, we’re 10km into the dungeon with a Mutant charging at us at full speed.

Arie stretches his bow back and releases a single shot. A thin white arrow silently flies through the air. It pierces the monster’s forehead and it falls to the ground, defeated in a single blow.

We walk over to the dissolving corpse. I speak up as we wait for it to completely disappear.

“So, want to try and farm a couple of hundred Mutants tonight? Maybe we can stack enough Fragments to complete this week’s quota.”

Arie looks me up and down curiously, then replies.

“Do you really believe that?”

I squint my eyes, looking back at him.

“What do you mean by that…?”

“I saw the way Tripp reacted to us finding that Fragment too. I just hide my emotions a lot better than a toddler.”

I respond, a bit embarrassed of my ignorance.

“W-Well… Hey! I’d like to farm at least 100 of them tonight, just to test if that drop is accurate. I can teleport us to the nearest ones pretty quickly, it wouldn’t hurt to test it out…”

Arie nods slowly.

“Fine, but this is pointless. I’ll farm 100 with you, then you bring me to a Titan. Deal?”

I gulp.

“Arie I-“

“Deal?”

I roll my eyes.

“I’ll bring you to one. If for any reason you can’t handle it, I’m teleporting you out.”

Arie smirks.

“Good enough for me.”

“Great.”

Over the next 3 hours or so, we zip around the dungeon taking out mutant after mutant.

Multiple times during my enemy detection scanning, I sense a level 404 moving slowly off in the distance. It’s most definitely Ember patiently drifting through the skies waiting for my return.

After 100 mutants, not a single one dropped a Fragment. They did drop a ton of mana crystals though, which Arie let me keep in exchange for my transportation services. After taking into account my sword’s mana output and Dungeon Walker usage, I’ve netted nearly 20,000MP worth of crystals.

After the last Mutant, Arie speaks the words I’ve been dreading to hear.

“It’s time to find that Titan. Come on Jay, let’s check one out. I know you’re inching to fight it too!”

I close my eyes and scan the dungeon with enemy detection to find the closest section on my radar that shows up completely blank. These Void Creepers hog up all the mana around them, making a spot so dense it’s impossible to detect anything within 500m or so of them.

About 20km further in, there’s a section of the dungeon that fits the mana reading perfectly. I haven’t ventured that deep in yet but got pretty close my last time around. I reply to Arie.

“The closest I can Dungeon Walk within range is about 3km away. We’ll have to make the trek on foot from there.”

“That’ll do the trick.”

“Alright, hold on.”

I unwillingly grab Arie by the shoulder and teleport us much deeper into The Great Plains.

It would be the smart thing to just tell Arie what happened to me the last time I faced off against a Titan, but something is holding me back. I don’t want anyone to know about Ember, especially the fact that I have a magically contracted Alliance with a monster…

Maybe I’m being overly paranoid again, but this secret seems like one I should actually keep. My loud mouth attitude about my skills hasn’t completely backfired on me just yet. I should learn from that and really try to keep quiet about this one.

Once we blip into existence on the far side of the dungeon, our long trek forward begins. My heart beats and my breathing gets faster and faster. I’m actually pretty scared. Last time I had a lucky break, and I mean a really lucky break… This time, If we’re caught in an endless void of mana I’m not so sure we can make it out alive. I don’t even have any food or water to survive the endless abyss.

As I keep my enemy detection radar open, I continue to sense the level 404 Dragon soaring nearby, less than 5km nearby in fact. I decide to open a telepathy link from long range.

“…. Hello? …. Ember, can you hear me?”

“Back so soon Master?”

“It’s Jay. Not Master.”

“I apologize, old habits die hard. It’s good to know you’re doing well, Jay. What are your orders? Shall I collapse this dungeon?”

“Hey, hey! Just hold on a minute. I still have a few things to do here. I’ll… just be approaching another Titan shortly, if you could watch nearby that would be great. I’m with another human, so don’t let yourself be seen. Got it?”

“Understood. I can sense your presence already, I’m on my way. I will watch from a distance and only intervene if your life is in danger.”

“Thank you.”

I disable the link and continue walking onward with Arie by my side. It only takes another 20 minutes before I can feel and hear the horrible humming sound of my 30-day nightmare return.

Just over one of the tall hills in front of us, I can sense that awful power. The link to a space between realms. A creature that infects Dungeons, slowly absorbing everything in sight, then creeping away to find another dimension with mana-rich prey.

I clench my jaw, then reach into my item storage to grab my dagger. Arie notices and speaks up.

“Oh, would you look at that. A new dagger? Isn’t that-“

“Hey! Get serious. It’s right over this hill. At any point, if we’re on the losing side here, I’m teleporting us out, got it?”

Arie straightens his shoulders and readies his bow.

“You’re really spooked by these things, aren’t you? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you like this.”

He grins as we walk up the hill, I grip my weapons tight and let out a low-toned response.

“Just get ready, and keep your guard up… no matter what.”

I’m completely terrified. My knuckles are turning white from squeezing my blades and sweat is starting to roll down my forehead on both sides. Shivers are starting to creep through my spine as the hum gets louder. I feel the familiar mana seep into my body.

I grit my teeth hard as we make it to the top of the hill. Both of us stand atop a valley between high points.

I gasp, looking down at the sight below us…

It’s another one. A 30m tall Titan, roughly 400m in front of it. The slow-moving mass of black energy mindlessly makes its way toward us, destroying dirt and rock in its path like it’s kicking up sand.

Arie’s eyes open wide as he creates a thin white glowing arrow.

I raise my sword and dagger watching the behemoth move across the wide open plains. It looks identical to the last one I faced… I mumble under my breath.

“How… are we going to defeat this thing….?”

Arie lets out a chuckle while pulling the white arrow back in his bowstring. It begins to glow brighter than I’ve ever seen it glow before. He holds it in place for a full 5 seconds.

The tan-skinned archer smirks, then releases the arrow soar and lets out a loud grunt while doing so.

“Let’s see if it can handle that.”

The moment his arrow leaves the bow, it condenses into a thin compact line of white light. Without a sound, I watch it fly toward the Titan in a straight line all the way down from over 300m away.

The mindless blob of human-shaped black mass continues charging forward in no specific direction as the glimmering white arrow shoots toward it at full speed.

Moments later, the attack makes contact with the monster’s featureless face.

I already have a premature sigh ready, as I know the inevitable outcome of the attack will just be it slipping through the endless void.

I begin activating my Dungeon Walker skill to get us out of here, but pause mid-way through as I watch in disbelief.

The white glowing arrow from Arie’s bow flies through the Titan’s head, but it leaves a wide hole in its place, followed by the eerie metallic screech of a Titan being injured and flailing its arms…

I do a double-take. Looking back and forth at Arie grinning and the 3m wide hole he just blasted through the Titan’s head with a single bow attack.

Eyes wide and jaw dropped, I take in the situation in front of me for a few seconds. Then, slowly grin.

“Maybe… We can defeat a Titan…”