I creep up the stairs as quietly as I can, Luna following me just as silently, her staff now in hand. Quiet zombies are only slightly creepy, but I’m thankful for it in this case.

I frown when the handle to the door won’t open, but Luna pats me on the shoulder motioning towards her pouch, and then the door.

I let Luna walk past me, watching with fascination as she does the same thing she did to my cuffs to the door handle, disintegrating it into dust.

It isn’t flashy, but it’s magic.

So. Cool.

I push the door open slowly, cringing at the creaking of its hinges.

The hallway is mostly dark, but empty, so I hesitantly walk forward.

Luna sniffs as we enter the hallway, her nose flaring. She frowns, a look of worry appearing on her face, before her eyes widen. She hurriedly steps in front of me as a knife comes flying forward, embedding itself in her shoulder.

I stare in shock at the knife in her shoulder, while Luna looks at it calmly.

“Tch. How’d you know I was here? I thought I hid myself fairly well.” The woman who had fed me steps forward, the shadows visibly letting her go.

Another Beta Tester? She was a Beta Tester as well?

Luna doesn’t respond to the woman as Luna pulls a powder from her belt, throwing it in between us and the woman.

“I don’t know how you got here, but my master told me to kill the boy if he tried to escape. And that’s what I plan to do. If you want to live, I suggest you move aside.” The woman’s hand ripples, turning into a gelatinous pink goo, before another knife appears in her now solidified hand.

Luna calmly pulls the knife out of her shoulder, turning it around in her hand as she studies it. With a snort, she puts it in her belt.

“So you aren’t human either.” The woman says, her form starting to ripple, “That ought to make this interesting.”

The woman throws her knife. At the same time, her arm extends into a pink tentacle, flying towards us.

I flinch as both the knife and appendage hit a barrier in front of us, right where Luna had thrown the powder.

The barrier wavers, bending where the pink tentacle presses against it. Luna lifts her staff, pointing it at the woman. She traces an intricate pattern on the staff with her finger.

A fireball shoots from the end of the staff racing towards the woman.

The woman just smiles as she turns completely pink, her body warping around where the fireball would have hit, letting it through to the wall behind her. More tentacles shoot from the pink blob that used to be the woman, hitting the barrier.

Luna frowns as she pulls a paste from her pouch. She kneels down to the floor, placing the paste in a semi-circle in front of us. She finishes it just in time as the pink tentacles break through her first barrier. The tentacles stop as they hit the semi-circle, yet another barrier stopping her.

Luna looks a little worried, and I realize that she isn’t as confident in winning this as I would hope.

Honestly, I’m feeling really useless right about now. I look over my left over DP, which numbers exactly 10.

That gives me two options, I can summon another undead, or I can become an undead myself. I doubt that becoming undead would help in any way, but… there was that other evolved undead.

“[Summon Dungeon Inhabitant: Undead Warrior]” As I start to speak, the woman increases her attacks, but Luna’s shield holds, if a little unsteadily. Luna casts another fireball from the staff, forcing the pink blob to back off slightly.

In front of me, a more masculine zombie appears, he wears the same chitinous spider armor that Luna does, but he holds a wooden shield and a spear with a stone head, instead of a staff. The zombie himself is more gory than Luna, with long red scars cutting through his bare arms, showing bone. Two symmetrical scars cut through his right cheek, also showing bone.

Luna looks at him gratefully, as he nods to me respectfully. She motions for him to come towards her, and he walks to her as she hurriedly applies paste in a circle on his shield. The barrier cracks from the force of the tentacles, reminding us of the impending danger. The undead warrior walks past us, towards the barrier.

With one more look at the both of us, his yellow eyes looking at me with respect, the warrior steps over the barrier. Immediately the pink tentacles fly towards him. The warrior holds his wooden shield forward to block the tentacles, a strange glow appearing underneath his skin. The shield holds as the warrior slowly walks towards the pink blob.

Luna takes advantage of the break in the pink slime’s attacks to draw new symbols on her staff with another paste from her belt.

The warrior strikes with his spear, severing one of the pink tentacles, but suffers a cut along his own arm from another tentacle for the act.

Luna finishes the drawings on her staff, as the warrior suffers several more similar cuts.

The warrior’s wooden shield cracks as he gets closer to the pink blob.

Luna stabs her staff into the ground, and the circle on the warrior’s shield starts to glow. The shield explodes, sending a powerful force at the pink blob.

The pink blob suffers a direct hit, exploding into pieces.

Luna and I both sigh in relief as the glow around the warrior slowly starts to fade.

Right as it does, a pink tentacle shoots out from the floor puncturing through the warrior’s chest, and another one shoots out for me, already past the barrier that Luna had let drop.

I stare at the tentacle as time seems to slow, the tip of the appendage right in front of my eye, almost touching the lense of my glasses.

Black energy erupts from beside me consuming the tentacle before continuing down its length until it consumes every piece of the pink blob.

I gulp as what used to be a pink tentacle dissolves into black dust. “Thanks for that.” I say to Luna, before turning my attention to the warrior who was slowly getting up with a giant hole in his chest.

“You’re welcome.” A surprisingly feminine voice says from beside me.

I turn my full attention to Luna, my eyes wide.

Her pale skin now fully covers her, with only her cheekbones showing through, her body had grown more feminine, with wider hips and a more noticeable, if small chest. You couldn’t mistake her for a male any longer.

“You can speak.” I say the first thing that comes to mind.

“I can, but it is still hard.” She says, moving forward to examine the undead warrior. “You should send him baaack. Excuse me. You should send him back, so that he can get flesh for his wound.”

“[Return].” The warrior nods to me, before he is surrounded by a white light and presumably teleported back to the Dungeon.

“What was she?” I ask, walking forward to examine the black ash that used to be the woman.

“I don’t know.” Luna says, kneeling down to scoop some of the ash into a pouch she’d pulled from her waist.

Whatever she was, I don’t think she was actually a Beta Tester, she was just a little too inhuman.

I look down the dark hallways, worried that the fight had gotten the attention of one of the actual Beta Testers.

Thankfully, the house seems to be empty aside from Luna and I. “We should hurry. I don’t want to be here when the Beta Testers get back.” I say, reaching forward to gently pull Luna away from her study of the ash.

“Beta Testers?” Luna frowns, following me down the hallway. “They sound familiar.”

“They’re very powerful people.” I respond idly, opening the door to a room, hoping to find my phone and wallet, both of which aren’t on my person. The room looks like a normal bedroom with a recently made bed, a desk with a few books on it, and a large cabinet. Moonlight shines through the only window in the room.

I hurriedly search the cabinet for my things. Luna follows me carefully, looking at everything with curiosity.

Opening one of the droors in the desk, I find my wallet and phone.

With a sigh of relief, I pull both of them out. My sigh turns into a groan when I realize that my phone is dead. I open my wallet, thankful to discover that they hadn’t taken any of the cash or cards out of it.

I take another glance at Luna, who is looking through the window outside. She turns to look at me, and I smile at her. “Come on, we really need to get out of here.”

She nods.

Thankfully, we don’t encounter anyone else as we leave the house.

Outside, we appear to be in a middle class neighborhood. I don’t recognize the street name of where we are. But it takes only ten minutes of walking before I find a gas station.

As we are walking to the gas station, I take another look at Luna. While she doesn’t look as creepy anymore, it’s easy to see that she isn’t exactly human.

“Look Luna, I think I need to send you back to the Dungeon as well.” I say before we enter the lights in front of the gas station.

“Why?” She asks, looking at me with surprise.

“I’m not supposed to have someone like you following me around, and if the wrong people find out that you are with me, it could be very bad.” My mind flashes to the warning my brother gave me. “I think I’m safe for now, and I’ll make sure to summon you at the first hint of trouble. Ok?”

“Ok.” Luna nods, even if she is obviously unhappy with my choice.

“[Return]” I say, and Luna disappears into light.

A quick glance at my dungeon points shows that they are empty.

I really hope that there aren’t any more Beta Testers about to kidnap me.

The gas station has a charger which I buy. Once my phone is charged enough, I make a phone call.

“Chris?” A groggy voice answers the phone.

“Hey Charles, how have you been?” I ask, glancing at the only employee of the gas station, who is watching me with boredom.

“Chris? Why are you calling me in the middle of the night?” Charles asks, his feminine voice clear over the phone.

“I needed to call someone they wouldn’t know is connected with me.” I answer honestly, my gaze turning to the darkness outside of the gas station. “I might have gotten into a little bit of trouble.”

“What... “ Charles yawns, “What kind of trouble?”

“The bad kind. Look, I just need somewhere to lay low for the next little while.” I pause, considering my next words carefully. “I have news on my brother too.”

The phone is silent on the other end for a couple of breaths. “You can stay at my apartment. I’m not using it right now anyway. Just ask Laura for the key.” Another pause, “Is he ok?”

“He was fine, if a little torn up, last night.” I consider telling him that he is a Beta Tester, but decide against it last minute.

“I see.” Charles says, drawing out his words. “Did he mention me?”

“We didn’t speak for long.” I say, feeling a little embarrassed over the whole situation.

“I see.”

“I’ll be over to your apartment sooner rather than later. Can you call Laura and tell her I’m coming?”

“I can.”

“Thank you.” I say honestly into the phone.

“No problem.”

The phone goes quiet as he hangs up.

I sigh. Why do my brother’s romantic relationships stress me out more than my own?

PrinceCorwin

I really appreciate all the support this story has been getting! See y'all next Monday with the next chapter.