Max tucked the crossbow to his shoulder and snapped off a shot. The drill-bolt whistled as it spun, a yellow magic activating on its tip. The piercing magic stabbed forward, just in time to hit a Frozen Soul in the chest.

  The thin ice monster had time to look at its chest before the cracks spread. The Frozen Soul shattered into dozens of pieces that skittered across the floor. The other three monsters didn’t pause as one of their members was cut down.

  Gus and Asta stepped forward to meet a monster each. Gus’ war hammer slammed into the nearest Lesser Yeti and deflected it into the wall. The last time he did that, the monster had died. This one was more sturdy, it rolled and hopped back up with a growl. The other Lesser Yeti leapt into the air, landing claws first onto Gus’ right arm. The first yeti scrambled forward and bit deep into the troll’s leg. He roared in pain and started flailing.

  Asta slammed her shield down atop the Frozen Soul’s head, activating her Rebound card at the moment of impact. The strike sent the monster tumbling to the ground with a crack. Both hits opened up cracks across its head. She stepped forward to finish it off with her mace.

  The monster wasn’t as rattled as she thought. As she stepped forward, it swiped its claws across itself. She danced back and avoided the razor sharp claws. She didn’t avoid the wave of ice magic though. The magic froze her greaves and sent out tiny shards of ice. She screamed in pain.

  Max moved to help her while Bisrat and Giovanni took on the yetis. Max danced around the screaming tank. He swung his war hammer down, spike first. The Frozen Soul stopped the hammer strike by snatching the shaft just below the hammer. He pushed on the hammer, but the level twelve monster was stronger than he was.

  The Frozen Soul grinned, jagged teeth showing as it stood back up. Max tried to pull the hammer out of its grip, but it grabbed hold with its other hand and held fast. He switched strategies and twisted the hammer head around. When it was facing the monster, he activated the super strike. The blue force magic shattered the monster’s head and torso, leaving Max holding a hammer with two arms attached. They cracked and shattered a few moments later.

  He turned to see how Gus was faring. Not well as it turned out. Gus was bleeding heavily, blood pouring from his wounds in rivulets. The Lesser Yeti were tough, and Bisrat’s knives didn’t penetrate into their skin much, even with her Accelerate boost. Giovanni was having better luck slowing one of them down with his ice.

  Max jumped in, slamming his hammer down atop the slowed monster’s head. The strike wasn’t enough to kill it, and the monster’s counter attack knocked his hammer out of his hand. It spun through the air out of reach.

  The Lesser Yeti slashed Max, its long claws sparking off the titanium plates of his armor. He jumped back and reached for his belt. He needn’t have bothered.

  The moment he was out of range, Gus slammed his war hammer down on the monster’s head, killing it. Max saw that the other yeti was already dead. The room was still once more. The only sounds were their heavy breathing and the hiss of a punctured boiler.

  Max’s shoulders slumped. At this rate, it would take months to get another level up. Hopefully the bosses on the fifth and sixth levels would be worth more essence.

  “Are we heading back now?” Giovanni said as he watched Gus slump to the floor in a pool of blood.

  “I wasn’t planning on it. I still have a belt full of tools with spells loaded up. I figure I can take over the DPS for the team now that we are close to the end.”

  Giovanni tilted his head and stared at him. It was like he was trying to tell if Max was full of bullshit or not. Eventually he said, “Alright. But I’m out of mana, I need some time to regenerate.”

  Gus sat up. “I only have a half hour left in my transformation. We can’t wait long.”

  “Gus is right, we can’t continue without our main tank. You’ll just have to give your sword arm a workout.” Max said with a shrug.

  Giovanni stood up. “No way. I’m not continuing without mana. And now that I think about it, I don’t want to be in your guy’s party. You rush too much. A dungeon climb should take all day, not one hour. You’re gonna get yourselves killed, and I won’t be there when you do. I’m done. Some stupid armor isn’t worth my life.”

  Max leaned back from the vehemence in Giovanni’s speech. Max hadn’t expected that response. He felt like they were being safe. The only injury was a minor one on Bisrat’s tail. Gus’ wounds didn’t count since he would be healed in a few minutes.

  “Alright, you can head down the stairs there. The rest of us are moving on though.” Max said and glanced at Asta to make sure she was staying. She seemed nervous, but gave him a nod anyway.

  “Wait for us in the first room where we met the Clockwork Engineer,” Bisrat said. “The rewards won’t spawn until the rest of us get there anyway. Or we die, of course. Honestly Giovanni, that isn’t going to happen. This dungeon is well within our capablities.”

  Giovanni huffed and stomped away. Max patched the boilers, using up the last of his patches. There had been exactly eight holes that needed fixing. Good thing he hadn’t messed up on any of them. When he was done, they headed up the stairs to the fifth floor.

  Asta shifted nervously, gripping her shield and mace tight enough that her leather gloves creaked.

  Max patted her backplate. “Don’t worry, Asta. I’ve been holding back. We are going to be fine. The guide said the fifth floor isn’t much harder than the fourth and Giovanni wasn’t really helping much. We got this.”

  She took a big breath and gave him a serious nod. Gus sent a chuckle through Message and slapped the open door.

  Ten foot tall gears studded the room, some laying down, some upright. Only a few of them were moving. A half dozen Frozen Souls dashed out from behind the gears, all of them level nine. They converged on the doorway, getting ready to send a frost attack as one.

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  Max pulled out a charged circular saw and stepped forward. He held onto Asta’s shield to make sure she didn’t step forward. Then he triggered its spell. A silvery disc shot forward, growing until it was five feet wide. The magic sliced through five of the bunched monsters. The spell was spent after the fifth monster shattered, so the sixth monster survived.

  Gus stepped forward and shattered the last Frozen Soul with his large war hammer.

  Max gave Asta a wink. “Told ya.”

  He felt like a badass. Max ignored Gus when he said something about him being cringe. Total badass.

  Bisrat stopped Max from cleaning the gears after the fight. They had run into the first traps of the dungeon. One of the gears was set up to slam down on whoever tried to remove the blockage. He had to re-secure the enormous gear and then remove the blockage.

  The rest of the fifth floor was exciting. The monsters were smart enough to start setting up ambushes. Max found himself running through tool after tool to keep the spells coming. He was enormously grateful for his dimensional belt. Without it, there was no way this strategy would work. He couldn’t carry hundreds of pounds of metal tools without it.

  Eventually, they reached the boss room of the fifth floor. Max handed Gus a pair of charged hammers and took out a pair of saws for himself. He gave Bisrat his crossbow.

  Gus opened the door to an unfamiliar sight. Instead of gears and steam boilers, they were looking out into an icy world that seemed to go on forever. Snow covered pine trees dotted a mountain landscape. A snowstorm raged above them. There had to be some sort of illusion magic covering the back walls.

  There were a trio of monsters huddling together about twenty feet away from the door.

  Rabid Furball 24

  Lesser Yeti 12

  Lesser Yeti 12

  Max’s heart beat faster. The Rabid Furball was twelve feet tall and the yeti ten. If that was a Lesser Yeti, he imagined the full fledged yeti would be enormous. These three monsters were going to be tough. The level six Lesser Yetis had been a tough challenge, and these ones were twice that level. He slowly reached towards his belt to grab the emergency feedstock brick there. He might need to make a sodium hammer and toss it inside the big guy.

  Since the monsters didn’t see them yet, Bisrat had the time to carefully aim the crossbow. She fired and a bright yellow light pierced through the snow. The light snuffed itself out inside the Rabid Furball’s head. It slumped to the ground a moment later.

  The Lesser Yeti howled and darted forward, each attacking from a different side. They leapt into the air at the last moment, claws poised to strike. Gus wound up and smacked the yeti on his side with the hammer. Its skin resisted the hammer strike, one of the few monsters that could. But its insides couldn’t handle the concussive force. It coughed and fell over dead.

  At the same time, Asta bounced her yeti back into the snow. The monster’s mass was enough to shove Asta back as well, she stumbled back into Bisrat. The Paj caught her and helped her stand back up.

  Gus jumped forward and slammed the other hammer into the prone yeti. This time, the magic attack did break its skin, splattering its brains across the snow.

  Max’s arms slumped. He didn’t even get to use his saws, let alone make a sodium hammer. At least he got some essence from it. He wondered if he would level up after they took out the boss of the sixth floor.

  They walked into the snowy room, heading towards where the stairs usually were. It was weird to realize all of the snow was real as it melted on their armor. The exit door was cleverly hidden inside one of the pine trees. Max opened it and slipped inside the stairway.

  Before he climbed the stairs, Bisrat stopped him.

  “Max, wait.” Bisrat said and put a hand on his shoulder. “The sixth floor usually has one big room. The boss or bosses will be titans. Most people skip it until they are ready to move on to the second layer and want to test themselves.”

  He nodded, “That’s what the guide said. Two bosses, a yeti and an ice colossus. Sometimes there are lesser monsters too, level twelve minions. Let’s take a peek into the room and then discuss strategy.”

  Gus opened the door and they all peeked in. They looked up, and up. The final room was at least three stories tall. No illusions this time, they could clearly see the outer walls. Rolling hills of ice and snow filled the room. Skeletal frozen trees dotted the hills.

  Two huge monsters wandered around different sides of the frozen landscape.

  Frozen Colossus Level 24

  Greater Yeti Level 12

  The yeti was off to their left, twenty feet tall and muscled like a hairy bodybuilder. Each claw on its hand was more than two feet long. To their right, an ice elemental stomped around. It was fifteen feet tall, and about fifteen wide. It looked similar to the Frozen Souls, but much thicker. Clouds of ice continually streamed from its hands.

  The squad snuck back down the staircase.

  “Looks like we got lucky and there are no adds. Just the two big guys. Should be easy.”

  “Are you sure? I don’t think I can handle a hit from either of them.” Asta said, starting to breathe heavier.

  “You are right. Stay here, Asta. Only Gus and I need to attack. Bisrat can be our overwatch and back us up if necessary.”

  Asta looked between him and the others as Max explained the plan. She couldn’t believe they weren’t turning back. Max handed out Augmented tools and they headed out. Asta stayed by the door while the others snuck into the room.

  Max made sure to keep a hill between himself and both monsters while he snuck closer to the Greater Yeti. He stopped when he could hear the yeti breathing on the other side of the hill. He moved into the shadow of a frozen tree. He tried to be quiet and waited for Gus.

  Gus needed to attack first, his part was the most dangerous. If the Frozen Colossus had time to attack, it could turn Gus into ice with its magic. That would probably kill him, even in his troll form.

  While he waited, he heard the yeti’s breathing change. Suddenly, it started taking in big breaths through its nose. It smelled something. It was trying to sniff him out.

  Max glanced behind him. He mentally yelled at Gus to hurry up. It didn’t work.

  The yeti crunched through the snow, getting closer.

  He had to make up his mind, attack and mess up Gus’ ambush, or run and hope the monster didn’t hear his steps through the snow.

  He took a careful step behind the skeletal tree. He was going to give Gus as much time as he could, but if the monster spotted Max, he would attack.

  Relief flooded through him as he heard the sound of a hammer striking ice. That was Gus, using the augmented hammer he had given him. Another five magic hammer strikes followed the first in quick succession. Each one hit the same spot on the Frozen Colossus, creating and widening cracks in the monster’s frozen body. By the time the fourth super strike hit, it shattered.

  The Greater Yeti roared and stomped towards Gus. Max dashed out of hiding and activated his own Augmented tool. A handheld circular saw. Silver saw blades appeared one after another. They grew as they shot forward, reaching five feet wide at their biggest.

  The first one lopped off the yeti’s left leg at the knee, the second one cut its right arm off at the shoulder. Discs three through six sliced into the fallen yeti’s torso.

  A grin spread across Max’s face. That level up felt good. He couldn’t wait for another. Maybe there was something to the idea that humans were addicted to leveling up.

  “Come on, Max. The stairs down are over here. I wanna get myself some loot!”