I was alone. I was alone in the middle of a fricking dungeon, which was packed full of dangerous creatures and even more dangerous champions, with no companions, and almost no offensive capabilities at all. There was almost no way that I’d be able to survive on my own long enough to meet up again with the others.

“Well, this sucks balls,” I grumbled as I looked around.

There was a tunnel off to one side, so I wasn’t trapped in this chamber. However, I had little doubt that it would be dangerous to go wandering around. For all I knew, there could be a couple starving trolls just waiting for me through that passage. In spite of the danger and uncertainty, I knew that I didn’t really have any other choice.

Just then, someone called out from above, “Hello? Are you down there?”

I paused at that, then looked up to the hole in the ceiling that I’d fallen through. It was about thirty feet up, so I’d been pretty lucky that I hadn’t broken anything. I’d spent nearly ten minutes yelling at that hole, hoping that someone would hear me, but nobody had answered…until now.

“I’m here,” I called back, having recognized the voice as Matt’s. “I don’t know how I’m going to get back up though…”

There was no response at first, then Cassandra’s voice called out, “Is Tyler still there?”

I didn’t know who Tyler was, so assumed that she must be referring to Axe Guy. “No. It’s just me…”

“Stand back,” Cassandra yelled.

A couple seconds later, Don dropped down from the hole and hit the ground in front of me. He landed on his feet and hit hard enough to crack rock. However, unlike me, he seemed unharmed by that drop.

“Fancy seeing you here,” I said.

Don just smiled and asked, “Need a lift?”

The large tank gestured for me to come over to him. I did so, and once I was beside him, he bent down and touched his weapon to the ground. There was a rumbling sound and the ground began to shake and then rise. I nearly jumped in surprise as I realized that the ground beneath was actually growing taller, acting like an elevator. It took about a minute to lift is all the way back to the hole we’d come through.

“Thanks,” I told Don, not sure how I would have gotten back to the others if it hadn’t been for him.

As soon as I was back in the upper chamber, Matt demanded, “Are you all right?”

“I am now,” I said, thinking about how much of my health I’d lost in that fight. Fortunately, between my regeneration rate and casting a couple heals on myself, I was back to full health and feeling good, if a little tired.

“What happened to Tyler?” Cassandra asked, giving me a curious look. Obviously, she was wondering how I could have possibly beaten him.

“I kicked his butt,” I answered with a smirk, only to get a couple skeptical looks in response. “Fine. I pushed him into a spike pit.”

“Ouch,” Teri said with a shudder.

Matt nodded at that. “Good thing for him that his patron can bring him back.”

“Just be careful,” Cassandra pointed out. “Patrons can bring back their champions, but not companions. If Maelyne could do that, she probably would have brought back Dave and Gary.”

Matt paled a little at that. “Okay, so rezzing won’t work for me. Good to know.”

“What about you guys?” I asked, looking around and wondering where the other two champions were. “What happened with Spear Chick and Cloak?”

Cassandra snickered at that. “I don’t think Marissa will like being called Spear Chick, but James would probably prefer being called Cloak. He likes to try playing the whole dark and mysterious thing…” Then she snorted. “Fucking poser.”

“Cassandra killed the girl,” Teri said, looking as though she couldn’t decide whether to be impressed or disgusted.

Cassandra nodded at that. “Got her in one shot. Turns out, Matt’s little paintball gun smashed the living shit out of her, and took out a good chunk of her life first. You and Maelyne will probably get some nice contribution credit for that one.”

“And with both of his companions defeated,” Don continued, “Conrad decided to flee…”

“And just in time,” Cassandra added, fixing him with a flat look. “He was taking you down, bit by bit…”

Don looked embarrassed at that. “True,” he admitted. “But you would have helped me before it came to that.”

“What about the loot drop from earlier?” Matt abruptly asked. “You remember, that box the goblins dropped before these guys showed up…”

“I suppose we should decide who gets it,” Don said, pulling the box out of some pouch on his belt. If he’d been intending to keep it for himself, I never would have known from the casual way he held out the box. “How shall we decide?”

“What is it?” Matt asked with a greedy gleam in his eyes.

“It unlocks a new skill,” Cassandra answered with a shrug. “But we won’t know which one until it’s unlocked. It could be something good, or complete crap.”

“I didn’t bring any dice,” Matt said thoughtfully, “so we probably can’t roll for it. How about drawing straws?”

“Good idea,” Cassandra replied with a smirk. “But companions can’t use these things…”

“What?” Matt asked with a look of surprise.

Don nodded. “Yes. Only champions can claim these prizes.”

“You can try, if you want,” Cassandra told him. “But it won’t do any good.”

Matt took the box and tried to open it, but it remained locked. With a grumble, he handed it back to Don.

Instead of drawing straws, we decided to play a little rock-paper-scissors to settle things. It took a couple games, but Cassandra won, much to my disappointment.

“Okay, what did I get?” Cassandra mused as she opened the box. She stood there for a moment, staring at the space in front of her, obviously reading her screen. “Okay, gymnastics, rank one. Can help with dodging and improves effectiveness with more agility.”

“Awesome,” Teri exclaimed with a grin. “I bet that would be great for cheerleading…”

Cassandra stared at her for a moment with a look of horror before saying, “I’m going to pretend you never said that.”

Now that we were finished with the chamber, we decided to continue on our way before anyone else could drop in on us there. Cassandra led the way, scouting ahead just a little to make sure that we didn’t run into any more traps. It was a good thing too, because she found a few more, which gave us a chance to avoid them.

It was about an hour after we’d left the goblin chamber, when Cassandra came to a stop in the middle of one passage. She just stopped and stared ahead with a suspicious look. When I looked, I didn’t see anything unusual. Or at least, I didn’t see anything that stood out from any of the other passages.

“What do you see?” I asked.

“Something doesn’t feel right,” Cassandra mused.

“Matt can go check it out,” Teri offered with a grin. “He’s good at setting off traps…like that one pit you fell into earlier.”

“I ALMOST fell into it,” Matt corrected her.

Teri rolled her eyes. “Details…”

“Shhhh,” Cassandra said, bringing a finger to her lips.

Cassandra then bent down and picked up one of the small pieces of stone rubble that were scattered about the various halls and passages. She studied it for a moment, then abruptly threw it down the hall. Suddenly, the walls closed in on both sides and smashed together.

“Holy shit,” Matt blurted out.

“Yeah,” I agreed, not taking my eyes off the corridor. The walls slowly moved apart again, until the passage was once again opened. “If we set that off, we would have been turned to pancakes…

“Jelly,” Matt corrected me with a scowl.

“Follow me,” Cassandra ordered us. “And only step where I do.”

“I feel like I’m in an Indiana Jones movie,” Matt commented as we carefully followed after Cassandra.

“Yeah,” Teri agreed. “Like the one with that big rock that chased him…”

Once we were all past that section of the corridor, we let out a sigh of relief. Dungeon runs were a lot of fun in games, but the real-world version was turning out to be a huge pain in the butt. Monsters, traps, and ambushes from other champions. And on top of that, we weren’t even getting much in the way of loot or XP for all our trouble.

“I just hope we don’t run into any more of those gross slugs,” Teri announced with a look of disgust. “Yuck.”

I nodded agreement, remembering the slugs we’d run into about half an hour ago. They’d been in one of the passages, all over the walls and floor. Each slug had been about a foot long, and their slime had been like acid, eating through just about everything. In the end, it had been easier to go around them than it had been to kill them all, then wade through the acid slime that they’d left behind.

“It looks like we’ve got another chamber up ahead,” Matt pointed out.

That was enough to put all of us on our guard, as if we hadn’t been already. So far, in most of the large rooms and chambers we’d found, there had been small mobs of dangerous monsters, traps, or both. Fortunately, most of the ones we’d encountered hadn’t been very difficult to deal with, but that could change at any moment.

When we stepped into the new chamber, I immediately noticed that this one was different. For one thing, this room was nicer, with less rubble scattered about. There were tapestries hanging from the walls, along with a few decorative weapons and shields. And then, sitting on a massive throne against the far wall, was an enormous figure. He was humanoid in shape, but unbelievably ugly, with grayish-green skin, large yellow eyes, and tusks.

“What do you think?” I asked Matt. “Troll or oger?”

“I’m thinking mini-boss,” Matt answered with a nervous look.

I agreed that this had to be one of the mid-level threats the Coordinator had told us about. A mini-boss. He certainly looked nasty enough to fill that role. In fact, I probably would have thought him to be the dungeon boss, but something told me we weren’t there yet.

The massive creature, a troll I decided, stood up from his throne, revealing his full height to be around twelve feet tall. He looked muscular yet fat at the same time, as though he had a powerful frame that was just covered with lot of padding. Since he was only wearing a loin cloth, I got a much better look at this body than I would have preferred. Then, with a snarl, he grabbed his weapon, a massive double-bladed axe.

I gripped my staff more tightly and warned Teri and Matt, “Stay close enough so I can shield you, and be careful…”

“Yes, Mom,” Teri responded with a smirk. I just silently flipped her off.

A couple seconds later, the fight was on. Don charged straight for the troll, playing the role of tank and trying to keep the monster’s attention focused on him. Teri and Matt both went in to try fighting the Troll too, though they came around from opposite sides. That made me get up a little closer to the creature than I wanted, but that was the only way I could keep my companions in range.

The troll’s massive axe slammed into Don’s shield, knocking him back several feet. However, he just calmly stepped forward again and braced for another hit.

“Hey, ugly,” Teri called out, right before she hit the troll with her baseball bat.

“Don’t taunt the troll,” I yelled at her, putting a shield on her right before the troll swept around and hit her. She went flying and hit the ground hard. Normally, that kind of hit would have broken some serious bones, though my shield kept her from getting anything more than some nasty bruises. I healed her, then added, “Don’s the tank. Let him do his job.”

Matt hadn’t bothered to stealth, though he did position himself behind the troll before opening fire with his paintball gun. He’d already used up most of his ammunition earlier, so he was only able to get off a few more shots before he ran out entirely. After that, he slung the paintball gun over his shoulder and drew his bowie knife.

Cassandra backed up to the far end of the room, then just stood there, taking aim with her bow and shooting. Her arrow glowed brightly, then hit the troll in the chest and exploded, knocking the monster back a bit. She took aim and fired a second shot, then a third.

The troll abruptly jumped at me, swinging his axe. I threw up a shield wall and jumped back. He destroyed my shield with a single blow, though I’d already gotten back out of reach. Don immediately charged the monster, hitting it with his mace and getting its attention again.

“Damn,” I muttered in frustration. “This sucks…”

I hated this. I wanted to be the one up and in that troll’s face, not standing back and letting everyone else fight for me. However, with my current abilities, there wasn’t really any other choice. Still, I might not be happy playing a support class, but I took my job seriously and was going to do it the best I could. My team was counting on me.

Shield on Teri. Shield on Matt. Heal Don. Heal Teri. Check on Cassandra to make sure that she hadn’t gotten in trouble while I wasn’t looking. Shield on Teri again. Shield on Matt again. Another heal for Don.

“Go down already,” I snarled, glaring at the troll. I really wished that I could see his health bar, just so I could tell how close we were to beating him.

A minute later, the Troll collapsed to the ground, no longer moving. He had nearly two dozen arrows sticking out of his body, and he’d taken a lot more damage from everyone else. Well, nearly everyone else. I hadn’t given a single point of damage in the fight, since attacking the troll with my staff would have been pointless.

“That was a little easier than I expected,” Matt admitted.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “But there were five of us going after him. If anyone tried to solo him, I bet he would have been a real bastard to beat.”

Don gestured to a wooden chest that had appeared beside the troll’s body, and suggested, “Perhaps we should see what our large friend has left for us.”

All five of us immediately circled around the chest, eager to see what was inside of it. It was definitely bigger than the wooden box that the goblins had dropped, though it certainly wasn’t the large pirate chest that I’d always imagined most treasures came in. And when we opened it, instead of a pile of gold and jewels, there were several small items.

“Another skill box,” Cassandra said, pulling out a small box that was identical to the one that had been dropped by the goblins. “A dagger…” The dagger was smooth and elegant looking, with a black tint to the blade, though it didn’t seem especially fancy. It looked like something that was meant to be used, not to be shown off.

After the skill box and dagger had been removed, the only thing remaining in the chest were three crystal spheres, much like the one I’d found during the last contest, though smaller. These were each the size of golf balls. One of them was a green crystal, one blue, and the last was red.

“Attribute points,” Don said with a smile and a nod of approval. “Very nice…”

“Definitely,” Cassandra agreed. She looked to Matt and began to explain, though I knew her words were really meant for me. “The green one contains a random point for the first bracket of attributes, strength, stamina, or endurance. Blue is for the second bracket, and red for the third.”

Matt stared at the spheres with a scowl. “I assume that companions can’t use these either…”

“Correct,” Don agreed, giving Matt a sympathetic pat on the back. Then he looked at me and Cassandra. “Considering our specialties, I suggest that I take the green sphere, Cassandra the blue, and Heather the red.”

“That sounds good to me,” Cassandra agreed.

I didn’t say anything, though I did take the red sphere and crushed it in my hand. I immediately received a popup.

YOU HAVE CLAIMED A BONUS PRIZE: +1 AWARENESS.

“What about the box?” I asked, gesturing to the smaller box. “Rock, paper, scissors again?”

Cassandra hesitated a moment, then reluctantly said, “I got the last one, so it’s only fair that I sit this one out…”

I looked to Don, thinking that since his patron was the god of stone, that he’d pick rock. I was wrong.

“Trap building,” Don said in an even tone after he’d claimed the skill. I couldn’t tell if he was pleased by that or disappointed.

I looked at the last remaining item from the chest, the dagger. None of us were knife fighters, or at least, none of the champions were.

“Do either of you have a use for that?” I asked Cassandra and Don. When neither did, I gestured to Matt. “Do you mind if Matt gets it then?”

Matt brightened up at that, and a second later, I handed him the dagger. He looked it over for a moment, grinning almost like an idiot at finally getting a prize. Of course, Teri pouted a little, and would undoubtedly demand her own present later on, but I’d cross that bridge when I came to it.