Zach and company left the dungeon through its entrance and was greeted by an angry scientist.

“Zach! You said you would take me into the dungeon. First your sleeping for a few days and then I get word that your going into the dungeon without me!? What do you have to say for yourself?” Dustin was pushing a finger against Zach’s chest. Pushing him as he spoke.

“I’m sorry?” He apologized, but it sounded more like a hesitant question.

“Hey, Dustin.” Thao waved. “Sorry we didn’t come and get you but we brought you gifts.” She turned to reveal the spider and beetle corpses strapped to her pack.

“Thao. You are always a welcome presence. Are those from the dungeon?” Dustin squealed in delight as he ran a hand over the deceased monsters. “Bring them to my lab. I can’t wait to crack them open. Come, come.” Waiving them along, he proceeded toward his lab.

The group followed and were inside his lab within a couple of minutes. The large tent was full of everything a scientist would need. Tables of full and empty beakers, vials, testing equipment and books galore. Just like his tower, there were books on most available surfaces.

It must have taken him a hundred trips or more to get all these books here. That or a ton of gold in transport fees. “Did you bring all your books with you?” Zach questioned.

“Haha. Not even a small percentage of them. These are just my volumes and notes on dungeons and their impact on the environment. I have more coming that speak to the history of dungeon cores.” Dustin walked to a large rectangular table and pushed the books off of it and onto the floor. “Place the specimens here.”

Thao did as instructed and unstrapped the monsters from her pack. As she placed them on the table, Dustin walked off and retrieved a silver platter with a variety of dissection tools on it.

As soon as the bodies were down, he went to work. Pushing a large knife into the underbelly of the beetle caused a splatter of blood to spit out and cover Dustin. Instead of becoming disgusted, the normal human reaction when being covered in monster gore, Dustin smiled. He grabbed a nearby empty vial and scooped the guts into it before placing it on a shelf.

“This is a beautiful specimen. I can’t wait to run some tests on it. And the spider! Look at how large it is. I bet it has two, no, maybe three venom sacs. EEEEE.”

For a full-grown man, he sure does squeal a lot. “I’m glad your happy. We can take you into the dungeon with us tomorrow if you want. I should be close to a hundred percent by then. Do you think that's ok, Droknal?”

Droknal nodded.

“Splendid! This should tie me over until morning.”

The group headed for the door, but Thao turned around before leaving. “We’re going to grab some food if you want to join us?”

Dustin was so engulfed in the task at hand that he didn’t even hear Thao’s question. She smiled and departed with the others. They all headed for the improvised inn where they shared a meal together. Before retiring to their tent, they stopped at Stoneaxe’s establishment where Zach was told to return at first light for his fitting.

Zach thought it was a great night overall. A successful dungeon run, some extra coin in the pockets, a happy scientist and a great meal. That being said, he was exhausted and happy to be back in his tent. Without saying much, he removed his armor and crashed hard into his cot. His entire party following his example, the group was out within minutes.

A rustling outside stirred Zach awake. He opened his eyes to see the hilt of a blade connect with his face and he was out again. When he came to, he was being dragged by his arms across a rocky ground. He tried to pull his arms free, but someone punched him in the gut. It was a hard enough blow to knock the wind out of him.

“You just don’t get it, do you, Zach? I told you I would find you and end you. Well…” Noelle’s visage came into his view from the shadows of the room. “Here I am.”

“Noelle?” Zach choked out.

She held his face up by his chin so their eyes could meet. “Miss me?”

Looking around to get his bearings, he saw that her group of mercenaries was with her. Each one of the muscular men were holding one of Zach’s arms while the other had an arrow pointed at his center mass. He also noticed cobwebs and dead spiders around him.

“Are we in the dungeon?”

“Well. Your not all stupid, I suppose. Let’s move.” She gestured toward the men and they all got moving.

After a few turns they were in-front of Sting’s boss room.

“Hold him up.” The men carrying Zach followed orders, holding him up by his wrists. Noelle walked behind him and out of sight. “That’s the end of the road for you, Zach. I’m going to let that creature have its fill. Then its not on me, right? You died on a crazy grab for power solo dungeon run.”

“Thats ridiculous. No one’s going to believe that. I would never go into the dungeon alone.”

Noelle chuckled. “Honestly. I don’t care. I win either way. I get rid of you and I piss Alcot off. Both of those things will make me happy. But first…” Zach heard the familiar sound of her whip’s tail hitting the floor. “First, I’m going to savor the moment.”

Without further warning, the crack of a whip echoed through the chamber. The thick leather lashed at Zach’s back. It cut through both the fabric of his shirt and his skin as if it was wet tissue paper. A wide and long cut ran down his backside as blood stain the rest of his shirt. He screamed out in pain, but the sound of another whip crack muffled his screams.

Another scream and another crack. Noelle was laughing like a crazy woman the whole time. A cackling witch would be a more accurate description to describe the vindictive woman torturing him.

This continued for what felt like ages to Zach. In reality, it only lasted ten or fifteen minutes. Noelle whipped him over ten times until his entire back was bloody and mangled. When she had her fill, she nodded her head and her thugs threw Zach’s limp body into Sting’s boss room. She gave Zach one more look before blowing him a kiss and departing with her party.

“Jeeves… I feel kinda bad for this guy. I mean… look at him.” Breck brought their focus onto Zach.

He was barely conscious and trying to stand. Putting all of his weight on a nearby wall, he could hold himself up.

“He defiantly is a fighter, Sir. Do you think the bug person will come looking for him?”

“Based on their conversation, no. It sounds like he's all by himself. Which means he's my next essence meal. I’m going to take control for this one. With him so weak, I can get really get some excellent practice in controlling Sting.” Breck moved his mind into Sting and landed near the center of the room. Let’s try a ground fight. There will be fights where Sting losses his wings and I don’t think I need the aerial advantage on this one.

“Oh? Taking it easy on me are you?” Zach shambled forward on incredibly weak legs.

He closed his eyes and focused on his inner essence. Pushing and flowing, he moved it through his sacral chakra point. The sacral point was the center of fluidity and emotions. This made it the easiest chakra point for Zach to manipulate because of its connection to water and ice.

I can do this. I need my essence. I need to control it. I need to live! Ice formed and covered his back. Not in one solid piece, but in segmented chunks. It was broken up enough to allow him to still move freely. He could feel it. He could feel his chakra point bending to his will. No, it broke open to him. Zach unlocked his first chakra point successfully.

The euphoria of opening a chakra point washed over him. It granted him temporary mastery and control over his essence. Although his overall essence pool was still small, the sheer opening of a chakra point rocketed him into the basic ranks.

If I live this… I’ll have to thank Noelle… personally…

“Well, that was impressive.” Breck commented. “The guy just gained four ranks and jumped into the basic tier. Now I kinda feel bad killing him, but it defiantly makes him more worthwhile to absorb. I should kill him quick before he uses too much more of that essence of his.”

Sting moved forward and thrust his massive stinger at Zach. Dodging was impossible, given his current state, so he fell to the ground instead. The stinger barely flew past his head as he fell to the ground.

He hit the rocky surface with a hard thud but fought through the pain to roll over and grip the stinger with his hands. With his newfound control over his essence, he froze the stinger in a solid block of ice. The added weight made Sting stumble backwards, disoriented.

Zach took this opportunity to get to his feet. More… I need more… The rush of essence was intoxicating but dangerous. He was still at lower ranks and didn’t have a lot of essence to work with. What little he had, he was quickly burning through. The icy chill may be nulling his pain and the adrenaline might be keeping him on his feet, but when his essence was used up, he would collapse. No amount of willpower, adrenaline or force would keep him alive when his essence was gone. Worse yet, he knew it.

Sting spun around and his stinger broke off, rolling across the room. “That’s unfortunate.” Breck took flight, but the room was slowly becoming enveloped in a chilly mist.

The chill was frosting over Sting’s wings. Breck increased the speed of his flapping, keeping them warm enough to remain air bound. The mist still slowed his overall movements and attacks. It was just enough of an edge to keep Zach alive as Breck launched a volley of attacks.

I can’t keep dodging forever. I need to go on the offensive, but I don’t have a weapon. I need a weapon.

Sting swung downward with his top two legs. Zach held his left hand up, closed his eyes, and screamed in protest. He thought the screams would be in vain, but the attack was stopped before it made contact. Opening his eyes revealed the answer. A katana made of solid ice was holding the venomous legs at bay.

“That’s new.” Zach muttered.

Unfortunately, the sword didn’t hold back the other two legs that skewered Zach’s chest. As the legs entered his body, ice formed around the wounds and stopped the legs from entering too deep.

“Still impressing me, but you need to die now.” Breck launched into a flurry of attacks.

Zach parried each incoming strike, but they were all still grazing him. The fact was, he was in no shape to fight.

More… I need more… He focused on what he needed, pulling up the image in his mind. The image of a sword. Giving it his full attention, he forced his essence to take shape. Chilly air collected and froze around his free hand. It coalesced into glimmering icy blade.

As Sting's next attack, an overhead downward strike, came crashing down, Zach intercepted it with his twin blades held in an ‘X’ formation. Before Breck could withdraw the limb, Zach pushed his blades together and lopped it off.

The arm fell to the ground with a sickening thud. Blood splattered over him, but he didn’t flinch. His life was on the line and his energy tank was on the barest of fumes. Digging deep, he mustered all the energy he had left. Leaping forward, he went on the offensive with his own flurry of blows.

Breck wasn’t going to go down easily. He fainted left, but at the last minute, he swung right. One of his claws cut open Zach’s side. The wound was deep and blood gushed down Zach’s leg as he fell to a knee. He was fortunate enough to land a counter attack that sliced open Sting’s abdomen.

The latest wound was too much for the young adventurer. He dropped his blades, and they shattered into harmless chunks of ice. His hands went to his wound, uselessly trying to hold his flesh together. Sting came close and hovered mincingly over Zach, ready to deliver the final blow.

“Here comes my next snack, Jeeves.” Breck chuckled. “Told you I could fight effectively as Sting.”

“I stand corrected, Sir. You did a fantastic job. But… what is the human saying?”

“Saying? Oh, he is mumbling something.” Breck focused his attention back on the fight.

Zach was indeed mumbling something, but his head was down to the ground. Sting continued inching forward, attempting to hear what Zach was saying. He got so close that Zach could feel his breath on him, but when Sting didn’t end his life, Zach lifted his head and shouted out.

“I will not die before I return to EARTH!”

A blade of ice formed in his left hand as he extended it outward. It came into existence just in time to make contact with Sting’s forehead. The blade pierced through the center of Sting’s head, exiting the other side dripping in blood. A moment later, when Zach’s essence was fully depleted, the ice sword harmlessly turned to water and fell into a puddle.

“Did he just say what I think he said!?” Breck’s consciouses returned to his opal shouting in confusion. “This guy’s from Earth! I need to speak with him. NOW! How did he get here? Does he know how to get home?”

“Sir, Sir.”

“WHAT!?”

“He’s leaving.” Jeeves pointed Breck’s attention toward the dungeon exit.

Zach dragged himself to the staircase, leaving a trail of blood and gore behind him. Leaning heavily on the wall, he was limping up the stairs.

“Jeeves. We just found another person from Earth. This… changes… everything…”

The End of Book I