Frank was not worried, just annoyed. This would be incredibly easy if he had a proper shield. His opponent was not strong enough to overpower him. If he could block, it’d be simple enough to defeat it even with its improved mobility. He didn’t though.

He was poorly matched against this improved, levelled up version of the first enemy they’d found. It was too mobile to be easily avoided and knocked over, had regenerative capabilities that left him without the ability to disable any of its limbs for more than a moment, and he didn’t have enough reach to engage it from outside its range of attack.

The animated armour did not intend to wait for him to figure out what he was going to do. It continued to advance steadily. Frank backed away with it, keeping the distance the same.

Maria, Bill, and Rina maintained the gap between them and Frank. Nothing came to Frank. No easy way to deal with it. He was simply ill-equipped. He shook his head, then called out to the others.

“Not equipped to tackle this guy safely. I’m going to say we head back to the entrance and leave.”

“Okay!” Maria replied for the group.

“Just walk quickly and this thing won’t be able to catch up. When you get to the first room you just think about it like when you entered, and you’ll move outside.”

Frank moved to the head of the group. The threat behind them was known, and slow enough to be outrun. In front of them, back towards the entrance, something could have wandered in the way. He broke into a light jog, the hastening footfalls behind him confirming the others had done the same.

The trip back was uneventful. Nothing had come their way, despite Frank’s caution. The original room as still there, just as empty as before.

“All of you leave, I’ll exit immediately after,” Frank told them. Then he watched as they disappeared. Then he left himself.

They all reappeared inside the abandoned temple, exactly where’d they’d been standing when they left.

“Re-enter. Since we’ve all left it will have changed. That armour won’t be following us anymore.” Frank said.

Bill made to ask a question, but Frank shook his head. “Once we are inside.”

Soon enough they were back.

Frank turned to the others. “No reason to waste time outside when we can do something in here. You wanted to say something Bill?”

“Why didn’t we take out the armour? It didn’t look that much stronger than the others.” Bill asked.

“Because the risk was too high. I don’t have the equipment to deal with it. I would probably be able to beat it. Almost certainly. But there’s no reason to risk almost certain. Would you eat from a bowl of fruit if you knew one was poisoned but not which one? Maybe if you were starving to death anyway, you would risk it. We aren’t starving though. There’s nothing really at stake.”

“Nothing at stake?” Maria asked, her face scrunching a bit.

“Nothing. We are in a dungeon. Time barely moves outside. If we run into something too dangerous we can leave and retry until we don’t. The only factors holding us back are that we will need to make it deeper to find water, and eventually, our food will get low and we will have to leave and resupply.” Frank explained.

“Oh, that makes sense. For me, there’s a lot at stake though. My father needs my help.” She replied. “And this still feels completely surreal. You say time stops. I believe you. But that does not mean I am… experiencing this situation as if time has stopped. You know? It feels urgent to me.” Maria finished.

“I know what you mean,” replied Rina. “This whole situation is like a fever dream. Nothing makes any sense.”

Bill also chimed in. “I know right. Like, for the aliens to pull something like this off, they’ve gotta be a what, Kardashev III civilization? And if they are that powerful then why even do this? It’s fucking with my brain man.”

“It’ll get better, eventually. There are rules to this situation, they are just different ones.” Frank said.

“Yea? What was it like for you at first, since you’ve done this all before?” Bill asked.

“A lot more terrifying than the second time,” Frank said. “When I went through this the first time I was not prepared for it, and there was no one who was.”

Frank pivoted back to the present. “We should explore out and see what’s changed. Maria take the rear again.”

They all moved out. The stone hallway was the same as before, a featureless tunnel of grey rock. The first difference became apparent when instead of a crossroads, the tunnel eventually opened out into a large chamber. Frank stood just before the tunnel exited out, and examined the room.

Large pillars of stone, perfectly square besides their rounded edges, but otherwise marked only by the natural striations of the material used, delineated a path through the center of the room. They were spaced every ten feet in two lines, rising from the floor as if they were carved from it. The ceiling loomed so high above that no details could be made out. The room itself extended on to the vanishing point, following the pillars. The walls of the sides were visible in between the pillars, gradually expanded diagonally away from the center.

Between each pillar, a suit of armour, posed as if leaning on a giant sword, stood upright. Each one was identical, except that three rows down, one of them was holding a suspiciously familiar pike instead of a sword.

Derelict Iron Armour Animated by a Forgery of the Flame of Intelligence

Level 1

When Frank noticed it, is description appeared immediately.

“Is it trying to ambush us?” Bill asked, apparently noticing it as well.

“Probably,” Frank said. “You almost never run into anything smart in the first couple floors of a dungeon.”

The armour reacted to being noticed and stopped pretending to be one of the others. It stepped into the center of the path, with the same deliberate pace of all the others. It did not approach them though. The armour faced towards them removed one hand from its pike and beckoned them towards it.

“It just tried to taunt us?” Rina said, confused.

“It’s definitely a trap,” Maria said.

“I’m going to try and figure out what exactly it is,” Frank responded. Frank carefully, tentatively, inched out into the room, prepared to dodge out of the way if there was a surprise.

He pretended to exit, stepping forward but drawing back as soon as his foot crossed beyond the line of the wall and into the room. Caution was rewarded. A pike swung down with considerable velocity where he would have walked to. A moment later it had been raised back, and another enemy stepped into view.

Derelict Iron Armour Animated by a Forgery of the Flame of Wisdom

Level 2

Frank considered the situation briefly.

“Back into the tunnel a bit, if they come one at a time we can handle them.”

Fortunately, that ambush had exhausted the intellectual meagre potential offered them by their nature. The suits of armour lumbered into the smaller space and were forced into a single file.

The first of them, the higher levelled one, attacked as it reached Frank. The things loved their overhead swings. Frank avoided it, stepping forward to slash it on the fingers of its gauntlet with his sword. The scimitar bit in deeply, taking off a jointed metal finger and damaging the ring and index.

He could have aimed to disable the entire arm as he had before, but that would involve stepping further forward. With another enemy following up behind, a safer but less debilitating strike was preferred. With three of its four fingers on it’s leading hand damaged, it’s combat potential was decreased noticeably.

As Frank drew back after the strike, the armour attempted to bring it’s pike across to swipe at him, but then it’s slow speed combined with the logistics of managing the pike hindered it, and Frank was out of the way before the swing came across.

The armour then attempted to bring its pike into a better defensive position and ended up having to switch hands. When Frank tested it out again, he noted with surprise that it had a dominant hand. Now that it’s right hand was damaged, it had reversed to a southpaw grip. The awkwardness with which it swung was surprising.

That didn’t stop Frank from slashing it’s another hand after he avoided it once more. This time he took the index and middle clean off. With both hands mangled, his enemy could not lift back up its pike, and that sealed its fate. Whatever force animated it did not give it the ability to fight unarmed. It was almost helpless as Frank stabbed it in the neck, lodging his sword in there so he could pull off its helmet and put an end to it.

The defeated armour blocked the other one from attacking Frank, and the momentum generated by Frank’s actions caused it to fall backwards, crashing into its partner. Though the thing was not knocked off balance, its pike was turned aside by the chest-plate that fell against it.

The opening was too good, and Frank was ready for it. He pushed forward, and disabled the last one’s elbow, leaving it one-handed.

“Come help me knock it down.” He called out. Rina, Bill, and Maria hastened to oblige. The four of them push it with enough force it tumbled backwards, and a repeat of previous situations occurred. This time though, Frank let Bill take the finishing blow.

Derelict Iron Armour Animated by a Forgery of the Flame of Wisdom(Level 2) and Derelict Iron Armour Animated by a Forgery of the Flame of Intelligence(Level 1) defeated. Frank awarded 350 EXP. Bill awarded 75 EXP. Rina awarded 20 EXP. Maria awarded 15 EXP.

The remains of the slain foes began to dissipate, and Frank stepped past them.

“One thing to note is that if enemies don’t disappear until you defeat their whole team. So if three enemies fight you, and you beat them, and they don’t start disappearing, there’s a fourth.” He told the others. “The fact that these guys are disappearing means that there’s nothing else in the immediate vicinity.”

The others followed after Frank. He decided to follow the path outlined by the pillars first. “Keep your eyes peeled, there’s plenty of space for things to hide.”

The three of them nodded.

The path stretched out for many minutes, and eventually, tired of walking in silence, Bill asked Frank a question.

“So if you are a time traveller, did you know any of us in the future? Or is it the future? I mean I assumed but you never specifically said. I guess you could be from the past.”

“I didn’t. The way I responded to the tutorial completely changed where it sent me. Last time I exited a couple of days from my home town.” Frank said.

“Aww. I was kind of hoping you knew me from the future and had gone out of your way to show up because I was just that awesome.” Bill returned.

“Are you going to try and find the people you knew?” Rina asked, curiosity evident.

Frank’s thoughts drifted to Garret, Vince, David, Paul, and Anna. They lingered especially on Anna. A healer. Yet she didn’t know how she acquired the ability. If he found her maybe he could figure it out. But on the other hand, if he interacted with her maybe she’d never acquire it.

“If I have the time, yea. I’m not sure I will though.” Frank said after a pause.

“What was the future like anyways?” asked Bill.

“Everyone died,” Frank answered.

The trio fell silent after that.