The wide cavern was littered with the bodies of monsters, some of which were already starting to melt into goo. When we’d stepped into the space a short time ago, it had been full of spider monsters, ones that we’d all been more than happy to kill.

I walked over to one of the dead monsters and pulled my dagger out of its body. With a wince of disgust, I wiped the blade clean and then sheathed it on my belt.

“You were pretty accurate with that thing,” Turtle said, nodding towards the dagger. “The way you threw it…”

“That caught me by surprise,” Bunny said.

I shrugged in response. “My ability was down and the spider was about to jump on Ace, so it seemed a good idea.”

“It was a good throw,” Ace agreed, looking self-conscious at having been saved. “Thanks.”

My hand rested on my dagger, then I chuckled. “It was surprisingly easy. After that fight with Jace the other day, I unlocked a talent for knives.”

“Really?” Bunny asked excitedly.

“Yeah,” I responded with a grin. “Now, it almost feels like I’ve been using this thing for years.”

Once my dagger was sheathed, I took a moment to check my gear out. My mace had a few scratches and nicks in the metal but was still in good shape. The leather jerkin that I’d bought as my first piece of armor was dirty with a little monster goo smeared on it, but other than that and a couple small scratches, it was in good shape too.

“I’ve got a new ability,” Bunny suddenly exclaimed. She was staring into the air, or at least that was what it looked like to me. I knew that she was really staring at her status screen. “I can’t wait to try this out.”

“What did you get?” Olivia asked with obvious interest.

Bunny flashed her a grin. “A second summon…”

With that, Bunny held out her hands which began to glow. She stood there like that for over ten seconds before a new rabbit suddenly appeared on the ground in front of her.

“Another rabbit,” Ace said with a snicker. “Why am I not surprised.”

The new rabbit was much larger than the horned rabbits, standing nearly four feet tall, not counting the ears which pushed it up closer to five. It was also a bit more humanoid in build, standing straight up on its hind legs like a person would, while also wearing a red jacket with gold trim. At the rabbit’s waist, there was a belt with a rapier sheathed on it.

“Hello,” Bunny greeted the new rabbit, which actually bowed down to her. “Why, aren’t you the polite one.”

The giant rabbit stepped back and drew its sword, then made a few slashes in the air for demonstration. Once it had done this, it carefully sheathed the weapon again and gave Bunny another bow.

“This is awesome,” Bunny exclaimed. “I can’t wait to see you fight.”

“That should be interesting,” I told her, turning my attention to my own new popup.

YOU HAVE REACHED LEVEL 6

The new level was welcome, but I quickly confirmed that I hadn’t gained any new abilities, only another free stat point, which I quickly assigned to focus. I wanted to get that and presence both up to ten before I put anything more into vitality.

“Does anyone see a treasure box?” Turtle asked as he looked around. “Maybe underneath one of these spiders.”

Turtle visibly shuddered at the sight of the monsters, even if they were all dead now. That was still a better reaction than the girly scream he’d made when we first stepped into the cavern and saw all those spiders.

“Nothing,” Ace said with a scowl. “And I’ve been looking.”

Olivia used her staff to point at the only real feature in the cavern, a large opening right in the middle, with glowing stone steps that descended. We all moved closer and stared at the stairway, not of us saying a word as we considered what this was.

“We can go deeper into the Labyrinth,” Bunny announced. “More dangerous. Bigger rewards.”

“More cash,” Ace said with a grin. “I’m all for that.”

Everyone considered that for a moment before Turtle turned to me. “You’re the lowest level here, Maggie. Do you want to risk going deeper?”

I hesitated for a moment before nodding. “Yeah. Let’s do it.”

“Okay,” Bunny said, looking to her newest rabbit. “Better get ready, Sir Fluff. We’re going to be counting on you.”

The giant rabbit, Sir Fluff, gave her another bow before he turned and began walking down the steps. Turtle watched him go, then shrugged and did the same. Everyone else quickly followed after.

As we descended, I found myself staring at Turtle’s backside. He had a nice ass. A really nice ass. Then I realized what I was doing and tore my eyes away, hoping that none of the others had noticed.

Recently, I’d begun to appreciate the male body in ways that I never had before. That was obviously part and parcel my new body and hormones, but it was still a bit weird for me.

“Focus on the job,” I quietly told myself. “Focus on the job.”

When we reached the bottom of the stairs, they opened into a new cavern…if I could even call it a cavern. I stepped out of the stairs and stared up above us, not seeing any sign of cavern walls or ceiling. Instead, I saw a thick wall of trees and vines, with what appeared to be the open sky above those.

“We’re in a jungle,” I said before shifting my attention to potential threats. There were always dangers in the Labyrinth, and I imagined that the apparent jungle was probably full of them.

A few seconds later, my suspicions were proven correct as something suddenly lashed out and tried to grab Sir Fluff. The rabbit leapt away at the last second, avoiding the attack.

The source of the attack was a giant frog, one that was nearly five feet tall from the ground to the top of its body. Its skin was a mottled dark green, the perfect coloring to blend into the jungle that surrounded it. Until the moment it lashed out with its ridiculously long tongue, I hadn’t even noticed it.

There was only a moment of pause as the frog drew its long tongue back into its mouth, then it lashed out again. The tongue shot out at Olivia, who squealed and jumped back. Turtle was suddenly there, using his shield to block the tongue. The appendage stuck to the shield and tried pulling it out of Turtle’s hands as the frog tried to pull it back again.

Sir Fluff abruptly leapt at the frog, using its rapier to stab at the monster. And then, not to be left out, its smaller siblings, the horned rabbits, all charged the frog at once.

“Let go,” Turtle exclaimed as he brought his sword down on the tongue, severing it and freeing his shield from the frog’s grasp.

The frog let out a gurgling roar and then leapt up into the air, looking like it was about to land right on top of Bunny. Ace shoved the summoner aside, right before the frog landed right in the middle of our group.

“This reminds me of the old days,” I said, right before I slammed my mace into the frog’s side.

“What the hell did you do back then?” Ace demanded.

I grinned, though it quickly turned into a pained grimace as I unleashed an ‘Invocation of Spite’ at point blank range. The Frog spasmed and staggered back, letting out a gurgling howl.

“Dog catcher,” I answered with a wince.

What I didn’t say, was that the dog I was referring to had been a fire-breathing dog monster, who’d been the size of a Clydesdale. It had taken three Wardens and a lot of firepower, including a couple mortar rounds, to finally take the damn thing down.

Olivia finally let loose with her arcane blast, sending a beam of blue energy right into the frog’s open mouth. There was a burst of blood and guts before it staggered back and dropped to the ground.

“Good hit,” Bunny told Olivia.

“I think I see another one,” I told the group as I pointed up ahead. “It’s already watching us from behind those leaves.”

As soon as the new frog monster realized that we’d seen it, it opened its mouth and spat out a thick glob of green goo, like some kind of enormous loogie. The glob missed and smacked into the side of a tree, where it began steaming and sizzling.

“That doesn’t look good,” Bunny commented.

“Try not to get hit,” I suggested.

The frog leapt towards us, this time lashing out with its tongue. Ace opened fire while the monster was still in the air while Olivia backed up and began readying her ability.

My ‘Invocation of Spite’ wasn’t ready for another shot, so I ran forward and smacked the frog with my mace as soon as it landed. It turned to lash out at me, only to have four rabbits attack it at once, followed by Olivia’s arcane blast.

“Back up,” Turtle ordered as he stepped right in front of the frog and slashed at it to get its attention. “Focus on me, not them.”

By this point, the second frog had already taken a lot of damage, but not enough to bring it down. It suddenly snapped around and lashed out with its tongue, snatching up one of the horned rabbits and swallowing it whole a moment later. Sir Fluff seemed to take that personally and charged forward, driving his rapier deep into the monster’s side.

My ability was finally ready to use again, so I took a deep breath to brace for the coming pain, and then fired off another ‘Invocation of Spite’. My little ball of agony hit the frog right in the face, and it shrieked in agony while its skin burned and peeled off to reveal bone beneath. It staggered to the ground and guggled it’s last.

“Two down,” Ace announced with a weak chuckle. “A LOT more to go.”

I looked around and saw that Ace was right. While we’d been fighting, more frogs had shown up, probably drawn by all the noise and activity. There were three more frogs within sight and I could hear more rustling through the brush.

“Maybe if we’re lucky,” I said with a weak chuckle, “we’ll be able to get some more levels from these guys.”

Several frogs came at us at once. There was a flash of motion and Sir Fluff was swallowed whole. A glob of green slime smashed into Turtle’s shield, right before it would have hit me. A large body landed right on top of the two remaining rabbits, crushing them both at the same time.

“GOD DAMN!” Ace shrieked. “That shit burns…”

I saw that a bit of the green slime had struck his arm, making him drop one of his scepters. He fired the other scepter, then quickly picked up the one he’d dropped before backing away.

“There are too many of them,” I said, looking around. “Everyone… Back into the stairs. We can force them to come at us one at a time.”

“And all from the same direction,” Turtle finished for me. “Good idea.”

I smashed one frog with my mace before I backed up, trying to reach the cover of the stairwell. Olivia fired an arcane blast and hit the same frog while she made her own retreat.

It didn’t take long for us to get into the stairwell where we at least had a bit of cover. Turtle remained at the front, between us and the frogs. His shield would be critical for blocking their weaponized phlegm.

Ace and Olivia took turns firing their ranged attack at the lead frog that was trying to follow us up the stairs. I remained back, waiting for my ability to get off cooldown so I could use it again.

“I NEED a weapon,” Bunny complained. “I won’t have the energy to resummon anything for a bit.”

“I’d let you borrow my dagger,” I told her with a chuckle. “But I don’t think you want to get close enough to use it.”

“You’re right,” she agreed. “I don’t want to get that close.”

Ace fired off one of his scepters while smirking. “Ranged attacks rule.”

Olivia snorted. “For once, I have to agree with Ace.” Then she fired another of her own arcane blasts.

“Ranged attacks definitely have their advantages,” I agreed before firing off another ‘Invocation of Spite’. But we couldn’t do anything with them if Turtle wasn’t covering our asses.”

The frog in front went down and the next frog in line scrambled over the first one’s body. It lashed out with a long tongue, only to have Turtle slice it off. A moment later, two blasts from Ace hit it right in the face, followed by another blast from Olivia. When this frog died as well, the next one came forward.

Our fight in the stairwell lasted a lot longer than any of us would have liked, and it was a bit close for comfort. But finally, after killing seven more frogs, we were done. We could finally rest and relax, at least for a little while.

Going deeper into the Labyrinth really had been a lot more dangerous. I just hoped that the rewards would be worth it.