Level twenty five was an expansive ocean of dark blue water that stretched as far as the eye could see. When the Corpse Hunter stepped through the base of a lighthouse he paused to admire the view. He'd never seen a real ocean before, neither had most Column Dwellers. This was one of the things he admired the most about the Dungeon. The world of Fallendahl was lost, but there were many small worlds filled with beautiful wonders to be found within the floors above Plinth.

The lighthouse stood on a small rocky island which was the only visible landmass in any direction. Sitting at the end of a nearby dock was a sloop. The ship had a single mast and was large enough to hold half a dozen people but simple enough to be piloted by a crew of one. Aiden pulled the cart across the gang plank and fastened it to the hull with rope. There was a light breeze and the water was calm but that wasn't guaranteed to hold up.

 

Vagrant flew up to the top of the ship's mast and settled in. It wasn't a large enough ship for a true crows nest but it was big enough for a vulture's perch. Aiden allowed himself a moment to appreciate the setting sun that was mirrored upon the calm ocean water. He took in a deep breath of the salty seabreeze as it lightly tousled his shoulder length black hair. If there was only one perk that came with his job it was definitely the view. For only in the Dungeon could you find such a sight as rich and vibrant as this one.

Naturally the setting sun didn't match the time of day back in Plinth. It had only taken him a few hours to reach the floor he was on now and he had left not long after dawn. But the Dungeon didn't abide by the normal day night cycle that played out on the floor beneath it. The Dungeon did as it pleased and there wasn't a soul alive to tell it otherwise.

After he had pulled up the anchor the Corpse Hunter unfurled the sail. He followed the wind, letting it guide him to his destination. The Dungeon often had a way of leading its challengers toward danger. For most, danger meant a way out. For the Corpse Hunter it meant the same with the added likelihood of finding corpses. There was one hiding somewhere in this vast magical ocean and it was up to him to find it.

There wasn't a compass on the sloop so the man in gray reached into his bag in search of the one he always brought with him. He moved a bottle of alcohol out of the way so he could pull out a small wooden box with a hinge. He felt no temptation to take the bottle or consume its contents. While he might drink on the job back in Plinth he never drank in the Dungeon. Clouding his senses with liquor would not only be a grave mistake, it would be disrespectful to the Dungeon.

They had been sailing south the entire time. South in accordance with the current Dungeon floor. It could be any direction back in Plinth and while it wasn’t vital to know where he was going it added to the illusion that he was sailing on a real sea outside the Column. If Aiden had grown up back before the sun went out he thought he might like to be a sailor.

The thought of seeing distant lands and transporting rare spices and trade goods captivated him when he was younger. He couldn’t recall the name of the book he’d read as a child but it told wild tales of nautical adventures on the high seas. That wasn’t possible in a dying world like the one he was born into but it was fun to dream about. When the vulture began squawking Aiden was awoken from his childhood daydreams. Vagrant had found what he was looking for which meant it was time to stop dreaming, and start working.

"Care to guide me in?" Aiden called up to his Familiar.

With a squawk of acknowledgement the vulture flew off, heading towards the southwest. The man in gray adjusted the rudder to match Vagrant's new flight path and kept the small ship steady. Fifteen minutes later he saw the first pieces of the wreckage. Splintered boards and bits of rope floated on the left hand side of the boat. That was called starboard if Aiden recalled correctly from a book he'd once read.

Tangled up in the rope was a partially submerged body and a handful of wooden planks. There wasn't much of the Ascender's ship here aside from what could be seen gently rolling in the waves. The Corpse Hunter focused on his Death Sense ability but the only ping he got came from the body he could already see. Their ship had likely been sunk and they were drowned in the process.

Whatever had killed this person would soon come for him and stopping the boat now would be a mistake. No sooner had the thought crossed his mind a large glob of black ink flew in front of his face. It passed between him and the ship's mast, landing with a splash outside the boat.

Looking in the direction of the attack revealed a large purple octopus that had just breached the surface of the water. The Corpse Hunter was doused in sea water as it rained down upon him like a heavy spring rain. While the small sloop was fast and agile the sea creature was better in both categories.

A long tentacle latched onto the back of the boat, prompting the Corpse Hunter to slash at it with his short sword. Streaks of dark crimson coated the blade of his weapon as well as the boat. By the time he managed to sever the appendage two more had already replaced it. The wind wasn't strong enough to fill the sails and break free of the creature's grasp. Slowly but surely the ship was being pulled beneath the waves.

While the situation was rather dire it wasn't the closest the Corpse Hunter had come to dying. Truth be told he had felt greater unease from Lady Edevane's subtle threats than he did from the flailing eight armed creature before him now. Monsters within the Dungeon were predictable, when they threatened you they did so out of instinct so it wasn't as personal. When a human threatened you, well that was a bit more complicated.

The Corpse Hunter gave up the sword fight and reached for his large backpack. Before he could get to it a large tentacle wrapped around his right arm and held him in place. "Vagrant, a little assistance here!" he called out, his voice was loud but not quite alarmed.

His avian ally landed in the center of the boat near the bag and bit down on one of the arms straps. The pack was twice as heavy as the bird but Vagrant was stronger than he looked. He waddled over to his owner with the heavy canvas bag gripped tightly in his beak.

"Good, now hand me one of the glass vials!" Aiden said as a second tentacle wrapped around his waist and threatened to rip him from the boat.

Vagrant stuffed his face into the bag and rummaged around, knocking pieces of gear out of the bag and onto the boat. When a round vial of orange liquid fell out the vulture kicked it with a talon towards the man in gray. He quickly scooped up the container in his left hand and waited for the creature to open its mouth. When it did he tossed the glass vial straight into the gaping maw.

Whatever was in the potion the creature didn't like it one bit. It released its grip on both the man and the boat before diving beneath the waves. The Corpse Hunter gave his feathered friend a thumbs up.

"Thank you for that one. Which vial was that by the way?" Aiden asked.

Vagrant squawked at him.

"The orange one?"

A look of mild concern filled the man's eyes right before a large explosion detonated underwater, rocking the boat hard. It was a good thing he had tied down the cart. Bloody seawater and chunks of octopus rained down from the sky as he looked down at the vulture. The Corpse Hunter slowly removed his hat to dislodge a piece of tentacle that had landed on it.

"I thought we agreed the orange ones were only to be used as a last resort?"

The vulture raised its wings as though it were shrugging and squawked at the man in gray.

"No, you're right, I should've been more specific earlier."

After apologizing to his friend the Corpse Hunter turned his attention to the body he'd left floating in the water. He had to circle back to it as the fight with the sea monster had taken him a good 20 yards from where the corpse had been. Considering the size of the blast that the orange potion had caused, that was probably a good thing. It was still there when he returned, wrapped in rope like a fly in a spider's web. He lowered the sails to slow the ship down as he came alongside the body.

He then pulled it out of the water and laid it onto a white sheet that he'd already set out on the deck of the ship. It was an older man in his forties whose scars and weathered skin had the look of a seasoned Ascender. A small spear was still gripped tightly in each hand with a chunk of purple flesh on the end of the barbed hooks. He had perished but at least it looked as though he had taken his foe down with him. These spears were now all that remained of the life he had once lived.

Once the body was wrapped and bound with fresh rope he placed it in the cart alongside the others. He was tempted to ask the man's body what had gone wrong. How had someone with his level experience fallen victim to a relatively low level Dungeon. The Corpse Hunter decided he'd bothered the dead with his questions enough for one day. He could satisfy his curiosity tomorrow in the comfort of his workshop.

With the only body on this floor secured he raised the sails again and allowed the wind to take him to the exit. A small dock awaited him less than a ten minute journey from where he faced the giant octopus. At the end of the dock was a marble doorway that stood alone with the same script as all the others. “Pull to ascend. Push to leave.” The Corpse Hunter moored his ship to the dock, lowered the gang plank, and hauled his cart out of the sloop.

This was the last body he could detect in the Dungeon, so he was free to leave. Just as he was about to push the door open and he felt something nagging at the back of his mind. Aiden glanced at the stack of bodies behind him, looking to the one that he had draped two small spears across.

“You didn’t come alone did you?” Aiden asked aloud as he pulled the sheet from the body of the veteran Ascender.

The body drew in a deep breath before answering the Corpse Hunter’s question.

On the twenty sixth floor of the Dungeon two young Ascenders huddled together not far from where they'd entered. They leaned over a small fire to dry their bodies and clothes. Both of them were still wet with sea water and looked to be in their early teens. Neither of them had said a word since they arrived on this level. It was the boy who finally broke the silence.

"What do we do now?" he asked.

"What?" the girl asked, startled by the sudden sound of her brother's voice

"I said what do we do now?"

"I don't know. We're not strong enough to clear this Dungeon by ourselves..."

"I think we should go back," the boy said.

"What?"

"We have to go back for dad."

"We can't."

"We have to, the boy asserted.

"I said we can't," the girl reaffirmed.

"We made it out of the last Dungeon, that means he killed the sea monster, right?"

"Yes, but…"

"So that means he could still be alive."

The girl didn't respond, she just stared at the small fire.

"Look if you're too scared to go back for dad then stay here. I'll bring him back and then we can all leave together."

"That's not what you meant, you jerk. We literally can't go back. When you're in the Dungeon you only have two choices, go up or get home."

"We'll see about that," the boy said before pivoting on the ball of his heel and slamming into the chest of the man behind him.

"She's right," the man dressed in all gray said to the teenager who was looking up at him with terror in his eyes.

"W-who are you?" the boy stammered.

"The Corpse Hunter," his sister murmured.

"Right again," the man replied, nodding to the teenage girl.

The boy looked from the man to the girl. There were tears in her eyes and she was on the verge of crying. He followed her gaze back towards the man with the vulture on his shoulder but his sister wasn't looking at them. Her eyes were locked on the familiar pair of matching short spears and the body they rested upon in the gray cart. When her brother's gaze fell upon the same sight he shared in his sister's pain. Their father was gone, along with any hope of escaping the Dungeon alive.

Aiden gave the teenagers time to grieve before he spoke. Despite what people thought of him he was still human no matter how calloused he might act. After twenty minutes had passed he grabbed the cart's handles and began to walk away. When the boy and girl remained where they were he looked over his shoulder and called to them.

"Are you going to wait there to die or would rather go home?"

They both looked up at him with confusion, tearing their eyes off their father’s body. The tears on their faces had mixed in with the salt water from the previous floor.

"Look," Aiden said. "I've already gotten what I came for." He motioned towards the corpses in the bed of his cart. "At this moment in time the only dead bodies within the Dungeon are already in my custody. Now I intend to go home so I can wrap up my duties and go out for a drink.

The two of you can leave with me now or you can wait for me to return in a few days and leave in the back of my cart. It makes little difference to me so you’ll have to be the ones to choose. If you decide to stay then you might find these useful, though don't expect them to be enough to clear this floor by yourselves."

The Corpse Hunter pulled the spears from the cart and set them on the ground. Both of the young Ascenders watched him, their eyes fixating on their father's weapons. Without another word the man in gray turned and walked away from them.

He heard the sound of footsteps not far behind. Glancing over his shoulder Aiden saw the boy and girl walking side by side twenty paces to his rear. They were keeping their distance but seemed as though they would follow him long enough to find the next marble door. Aiden could see they were holding hands, not wanting to lose any more than they already had. In their free hands they each gripped a small spear, not wanting to give up either. He was wrong for thinking those spears were all that remained of the veteran Ascender.