Drillmaster Groll stepped forward, his heavy foot clanking against the cobbles in the courtyard. Morgan took a good look at his armor - the way it encased him from neck to toes in heavy-looking blue-gray plates. Even his joints had little articulated plates on them. Morgan knew there was a name for those armor pieces, but he didn’t know it. Groll, like his students, emitted a silver-blue luminescence, and when he shifted slightly, reaching over his shoulder to unhook a massive greatsword, Morgan felt some nervousness. He hadn’t had time to mess around with it, but he decided to swap his sword with the estoc he’d won from the gate guardian; he didn’t fancy his odds of slashing through that armor.

He hefted the blade, admiring how the orange flicker of its internal fire surged up and down the metal while he moved it. He’d have to be careful with his forms; this sword was meant for stabbing and parrying - his most devastating form was a cleaving attack that would be ineffectual without a blade. The hackles on his neck rose when he heard Issa’s discordant Battle Chant start up, but he reveled in the surge of vibrancy that coursed through his limbs. Morgan lifted Heartspark into a middle guard and began to channel Vortex Lance. Groll’s eyes flared with crimson fire the instant Morgan started to cast the spell, and he roared, whipping his gigantic, gleaming greatsword in an arcing cleave over his head and down toward the ground in front of him. A red glimmer erupted along the length of the blade while he swung it, and though neither Morgan nor Issa were in range of the swing, standing some twenty feet distant, they both dodged out of the way.

It was a good thing they did—as the greatsword cut the air, the red glimmer seemed to detach and ripple through the air, extending the range of the cut a dozen fold. The cobbles in front of where Morgan had been standing erupted into powdered stone fragments, and the cut continued past where he’d been. Morgan rolled to his feet, his Vortex Lance ruined by his broken concentration. Groll broke into a chuckle, and Morgan frowned, circling closer to him while Issa worked on getting to his other flank. As he got closer, Morgan could make out his features and realized that Groll was the biggest Ardeni he’d ever seen, easily as tall as Morgan but much broader in the shoulders. His blue head was shaved clean, but his bushy orange eyebrows and beard stood out starkly. Groll seemed to ignore Issa, staring at Morgan, and then he charged.

Morgan lowered his center and dropped into The Crane Defends the Nest. He poured Energy into his limbs and used his increased parrying surface to meet the tremendous blow of Groll’s greatsword. It felt like trying to block a grizzly bear’s swipe with a broomstick. His estoc was flung to the side, but Morgan’s sword skills were improving - he didn’t let the blow cleave him in half as it broke his guard; instead, he pivoted and allowed the momentum to swing him out of range of the slash. He found himself at Groll’s side, with his enemy overextended. He lunged with the estoc, driving the point into the armor covering his exposed left side. The razor point flared with orange fire as it burned through the heavy plate armor, and Morgan shoved with all his might. The blade sank a foot into Groll’s body, and he screamed a deafening, choking howl of disbelief and pain.

Morgan stumbled in shock as Groll collapsed, dragging Morgan with him as he clung to the estoc. The giant drillmaster coughed a gurgling torrent of blood, and then he lay still. Suddenly a dense layer of Energy motes coalesced over the fallen swordsman and all the vanquished students in the courtyard. Thick, shimmering ribbons of Energy flowed into Morgan and Issa.

***Congratulations! You’ve achieved level 25 Vortex Duelist. You have gained 8 Intelligence, 8 Agility, 6 Will, 6 Dexterity.***

“Morgan! How did you do that?” Issa hurried toward him as soon as she’d recovered from the influx of Energy.

“I made a good parry, er riposte? Anyway, Heartspark is the real hero - it melted through his armor, and I’m pretty sure his heart, too. Glad I swapped out my sword for this fight!” Morgan picked up the still smoldering estoc and held it out to admire the furious orange glow that rippled up and down its length.

“Morgan! A chest!” Issa walked quickly toward the courtyard's center, where a sizable footlocker-shaped chest had appeared. “This definitely wasn’t here before, but it doesn’t look like a System chest.”

“Well, yeah, things are different in this dungeon than in the Crucible, but I think the System still has an influence; that skill scroll I got seems too specifically perfect for me. I mean, I don’t even know if my sword style is from this planet. I had a vision of a master using it, and he seemed human to me, but that might have been a mental bias - I don’t think I ever saw his face. Anyway, the point I was trying to get to is that I feel like the System put that reward there for me.” Morgan kind of trailed off as Issa cocked an eyebrow at him but didn’t respond. Was he being crazy?

“In any case, this seems like an award for clearing the courtyard,” Issa said, squatting to look at the chest more closely. It was remarkably similar in construction to the chest that had been near Tal-dak and Shinra’s tent - pale planks with bronze corner plates and clasp.

“I doubt it’s trapped - it looks like Tal-dak’s chest, and it’s an award. Why trap it?” While he spoke, Morgan looked closely at the chest with Azure Sight and noticed nothing.

“Nevertheless, let's use our strategy.” Issa looked at him, waiting for Morgan to cast Guard Ally, and he did so, then backed up a few steps. She nodded and opened the chest, and nothing exploded or shot out of it. “This looks good, Morgan!” Her voice was hushed with awe as she knelt in front of the open chest. Morgan rushed over to see what she was looking at. The chest had a polished wooden insert with variously shaped holes cut into it. Each hole contained an item: there were six round holes with small, colorful, labeled vials resting in them, two rectangular cutouts held bars of gleaming amber-colored metal, and two thin oblong cutouts held gold foil-wrapped packages.

“Wow. Is that amber-ore?” He asked, leaning to look more closely. Issa nodded, lifting out one of the big rectangles of dense metal. Morgan could see by the way her tendons stood out in her forearms that it was heavy.

“It’s a lot, Morgan. This is a precious prize by itself.” She handed the metal bar to him, and Morgan could feel the Energy thrumming within it. Looking closely, he saw swirls of blue-gray running through the ore. He admired it for a moment more and then stowed it in his ring.

“You take the other one. What are those vials?” He reached down and plucked one of the vials out and read the label aloud while Issa hefted the other ingot out and stored it in her pouch, “Dranim’s Miracle Elixir - cures most poison, disease, and mends injuries.”

“They’re all the same,” Issa said, examining the labels. They split up the six elixirs, and then Issa asked, “What do you think is wrapped in the foil?”

“Isn’t there a label?” Morgan watched as Issa gingerly lifted one of the little foil-wrapped packages out of the slot in the chest and turned it around in her hands, looking for a label. She squinted at the bottom of the package, and suddenly her face exploded with a huge smile.

“Randon’s Core Cake!” She handed the golden package to Morgan, and he noted the dense but squishy consistency of the material wrapped within.

“Do you think it’s meant to improve our Cores?” The idea of a food that could improve his Core seemed silly to him, but he supposed he’d seen sillier. It could be made of rare natural materials or something or baked in some sort of alchemical process.

“I don’t know. I’ve never heard of such a thing, but the universe is a big place, Morgan. Should we try it?”

“I don’t know, let’s think about this - I haven’t put a lot of work into cultivating my Core, and it’s already base three, close to base four, I think. Maybe we should save these until we’re stuck? Or until we need a boost in a hurry?” Issa frowned at his words, but she slowly nodded.

“You’re right. We should be smart about it. Let’s save them for now.” She reached into the box and took out the other cake, putting it into her pouch. Morgan put his cake into his ring, and then he stood up and looked around the courtyard. “Well, what’s next? Into the keep? Whatever’s going on in this dungeon, it seems kind of scripted. I mean, if this were the real world, everyone inside would have come running to help during the battle.”

“That’s true. Well, I say we go in and see what the next encounter is.” Issa started to walk toward the short flight of steps leading to the keep entrance, but Morgan put a hand on her shoulder.

“I knew you’d say that, but let’s just think for a minute - that Drillmaster guy was pretty tough. I got a lucky kill shot on him, but we could be in trouble if things get progressively harder. That guy was cutting the cobblestones from twenty feet away!” Issa didn’t reply to him; rather, she just looked back at him and stared pointedly. “Alright. I get it. No guts, no glory, eh?” She smiled and turned to keep walking, and Morgan followed after.

The stairs were clean and free of debris, and the large wooden doors looked sturdy and well-maintained. It was a stark contrast to the ruined keep they’d explored outside the pocket world of the dungeon. Before trying to open the door, he and Issa both readied their swords. Morgan wielded his Umbral Razor just because it was more familiar to him, and he didn’t know what to expect. Anticipating the keep to be dark, he maintained his Azure Sight spell, and then he carefully pulled on the large brass handle of the right-side door.

The foyer of the keep was the same general shape as the ruined version in the outside world, but the flagstones were polished to a sheen, and the walls were painted and in good repair. Art hung on the walls, and the wooden stairway was oiled and reflected the flickering lights mounted on the walls in ten-foot intervals. As soon as Morgan stepped through the doorway, two individuals who had been standing to either side of the far doorway started marching toward him, drawing broadswords. They wore chainmail shirts and walked with the grace of professional fighters. Both were Ardeni men with close-cropped colorful hair, and neither offered any conversation.

Morgan stepped to the right, making room for Issa, and he felt her hand on his shoulder. A moment later, a surge of Energy flooded him, and, not waiting for an invitation, he used Hollow Charge to launch himself at the right-hand guard. His first slash was met with a shimmering wall of Energy that seemed to be projected from the guard’s sword, so he cautiously sidestepped and continued to test the guard’s defenses. Issa was keeping the other guard busy, so Morgan poured everything he had into a series of feints and slashes, making the most of Issa’s haste. The shimmering barrier wasn’t permanent, and, after several strikes, it wavered, and the guard was forced to use his blade to parry. Morgan wanted to keep pressing with just sword strikes, rather than using his Energy abilities, as long as the fight was in control because he wanted to improve his skill level.

After watching Issa in the courtyard melee, he’d seen that she was definitely on the verge of breaking through to advanced, displaying a lot more speed and control with her sword than he did. Rather than being bothered by it, Morgan felt inspired to improve, and so he worked to beat his opponent with his blade alone. It wasn’t a trivial feat - the guard was better than any of the courtyard combatants other than the Drillmaster. When his haste wore off, he had to work very hard to find an opening in the Ardeni’s guard, exchanging parries, feints, and maneuvering his feet in order to find a pattern to exploit. After what felt like a very long time but was probably only two minutes or so, he saw that the guard tended to over-extend when he lunged at Morgan’s left side. Morgan drew him into another lunge by feigning a stumble to his right, but, just as the guard went for it, Morgan pivoted on his leading foot, swiveling his body out of the way and chopping his long blade toward the extended arms of his foe. He took the guard’s hand off at the wrist, and his blade clattered to the ground amid a shower of faintly glowing, crimson blood.

The eeriest thing about the whole fight had been the silence of the Ardeni guardsman, continuing even after Morgan chopped off his hand. The guard’s mouth opened in a silent wail, but his remaining hand reached for a long poniard at his waist, so Morgan lunged, and the angled point of his sword split the chainmail and slipped into the guard’s chest. While his opponent crumpled, Morgan quickly scanned for Issa and saw that she was, once again, proving that speed and skill trumped size. The guard she’d been fighting was sluggish and bright; luminous blood soaked the tops of his trousers, running out from beneath his chainmail; Issa must have stabbed him several times. He only watched for a couple of seconds before Issa delivered a killing blow, taking advantage of the guard’s slow movements and slipping inside his guard to drive her rapier up under his chin.

The guards’ bodies dissolved into mist as motes of Energy flooded into Morgan and Issa. She looked at Morgan and said, “Level!”

“Nice! Seventeen now?” She nodded, looking around the room.

“No chest this time.”

“Yeah, I think we’re going to have to fight harder than that for chests. Did you notice nothing came to interfere with the fight again?”

“Yes, I figured that’s why you were toying with your opponent!”

“I wasn’t toying with him! I was trying to improve my swordwork.” Morgan walked toward the center of the room. “Well? Into the main hall or up the stairs and explore a little first?”

“Or through this door on the left?” Issa pointed, and Morgan realized there was a smaller door he’d missed between two columns.

“Let’s explore. I have a feeling there’s a big fight waiting in the central hall.” He walked past her to the smaller door on the left side of the room, opposite the stairs, and, with the utmost care to be quiet, he pushed it open.