After studying the map provided by his wayfinder, Edge knew that he had washed up on the tip of a thin strip of land, which ran alongside the river like a miniature peninsula. His first goal was to follow it back to a larger landmass that he hoped would lead him out of the swamp.

  Beyond the muddy shoreline, the earth rose steeply before leveling out near the height of his head. Trees grew along the periphery, with long roots that dipped down into the water below. When he climbed up to solid ground, he saw that the terrain was uneven—covered in protruding plants and scattered stones.

  In front of him, the river stretched out to over fifty feet wide as it flowed across the dungeon. Past that point, boulders studded the waterway, causing the flow to narrow into a long stretch of whitewater rapids. I’m lucky that the current carried me here. If I had kept on going, the rocks would have pummeled me to paste.

  Since there wasn’t any way to cross the river, and the terrain was too rough to walk across the elevated portion of the peninsula, Edge’s only option was to trudge through the mud and hope that it led to more accessible terrain.

  As he crossed the Savage Garden, he had to contend with an unending parade of horrors marching across the theater of his mind’s eye—conjured by his turbocharged imagination.

  Even with Skill-Eater and the incredible powers it granted, he was only approaching the peak of stage one. Most of the monsters in this zone were probably stage three, and his chances of surviving an encounter sat somewhere between slim and none.

  Just be quiet, go slow, and don’t draw any attention to yourself while you adapt to the environment. Your odds will improve as you gather more information.

  When the strip of land he was following joined a bigger piece, Edge climbed to higher ground, activated Penetrate Foliage, and took a long look around. After the plants faded into transparency, he spotted dozens of animals living in the dense vegetation that covered much of the swamp. Fortunately, he didn’t see any monsters lurking near his position. He had to move back down to the riverbank to proceed, stepping from stone to stone to avoid leaving tracks in the mud.

  Since he didn’t have any skills that let him see below the water, he stayed as far away from the river as possible while he followed it upstream. Thankfully, the muddy shore was broad—at least twenty feet wide in most places. Something with a ranged attack would still be able to hit him, but at least he didn’t have to worry about an aquatic ambush predator taking him out before he even knew he was there.

  As he crept from one hiding place to the next, Edge let the ambiance of the swamp wash over him. It was an ominous, treacherous landscape—filled with hidden crevices and unstable terrain. Even if he wasn’t trapped in a dungeon populated by bloodthirsty monsters, he would have been incredibly nervous crossing it. Since he was, every shifting shadow and unknown sound was immensely threatening, setting his heartbeat thundering in his ears.

  While the resident monsters would end his life with enthusiasm if they found him, fear was almost as dangerous and far more insidious. Don’t think about… well, any of it. Just focus on the next step and the one after that until you manage to find some sort of shelter. Then you can take a break and freak the fuck out.

  His first order of business was to get to high ground, then survey his surroundings and come up with a plan. He needed to escape the dungeon before something sensed his presence and tried to eat him, but rushing ahead without thinking things through would be a short path to a gruesome demise.

  A nervous hour of trudging through the muck later, the groundcover began to thin. He could see a sparkling waterfall ahead, where the river ran over a rocky ledge before winding its way across the swamp. He tiptoed over to the incline, used Entangle to create a series of handholds, then scaled the wall of earth until he was standing beside the falls.

  Given his elevation and the open space where the river ran, he could see a fair distance downstream. Unfortunately, it didn’t help him find his way out, as it only let him peer deeper into the swamp. Since he was already here and the information would be valuable to the expedition, he stopped to catch his breath while committing the details to memory.

  The swamp stretched out for another few miles before transitioning into a series of waterways and islands, upon which he could make out the distant profiles of crumbling ruins. That must be the final zone of the dungeon, where the entrance to the boss’s chamber is located.

  Glad that he was headed the other way, Edge turned around and kept following the river. This part of the zone wasn’t as wet, which made him hopeful that he was getting close to the border of the jungle. Unfortunately, that proved not to be the case.

  He decided to stop for lunch an hour later, when he came across a massive boulder that topped off over twice his own height. After climbing to the top and making sure that nothing nasty was lurking nearby, Edge opened his pack and pulled out some dried beast jerky. He was too nervous to be hungry, but he had to eat if he wanted to keep his body from growing weak. Plus, the magicytes contained in the meat would help him recover his reserves.

  Stolen story; please report.

  He was just about to resume his journey when his ears caught the clacking of claws scrabbling against rocks. He immediately activated Conceal, using its new rank-three upgrade to turn up the power and erase more of his trail than he could have managed before. No sooner had the skill worked its magic than a monster came into view.

  At his best guess, it was peak stage two. The thing looked like a hedgehog crossbred with a hippopotamus in the worst possible way. The creature had been sniffing at the ground, but it came to a stop a few seconds later, looking around in confusion while scenting the air. It was remarkably quiet for something so big and moved with an agility that belied its bulk.

  Adrenaline pumped into his bloodstream when he realized what had happened. Oh shit. I must not have used enough ointment. It was stalking me, and I never even knew it was there. That must be the boundary of where Conceal erased my trail.

  Edge had been hoping that the twisted thing would lose interest and go away, but it seemed that the creature was smart enough to understand what was going on. The hedgehippo couldn’t sense him anymore, but it knew that he was nearby. Worse, it was clever enough to project his path based on the trail it had followed. It advanced along the water’s edge while grumbling in irritation, drawing closer to the boulder where he was hiding.

  That was when the monster turned and started heading straight toward him. Fuck me. It’s going to be here in another minute at most. What should I do?

  If Edge moved more than a fraction of an inch per second, Conceal would fail and the creature would find him. But if it decided climb the boulder, it would touch him and catch him anyway. He could run for it, but the noise would draw every monster in the area, compounding the danger he was already facing.

  He wracked his brain for a solution as the spiky monstrosity drew closer and closer—maw grinding like it was fantasizing about the flavor of his flesh. It stopped to sniff at the air, then began circling the boulder when it didn’t pick up his scent. As soon as it completes the lap, it’s going to climb up here.

  Just when he was certain that he was going to have to fight it after all, a second monster appeared. At first, Edge didn’t know what he was looking at. A patch of blackness the size of a living-room rug was flowing across the riverbank. For a moment, he thought that it was made of shadows, but then he noticed that the creature was leaving a trail formed from thousands upon thousands of tiny, hook-shaped footprints.

  Whatever the bizarre creature was, it was fast. If glided across the mud with no appreciable difficulty, displaying a liquid grace like oil flowing over water. By now, the hedgehippo was looking up at the top of the boulder. A few more seconds, and it would try to climb.

  The situation left Edge in the unusual position of rooting for a monster. With any luck, the flat fucker would ambush the spiky bastard, they would attack each other, and he could get away in the confusion.

  While these thoughts fitted across his mind, the black monster had closed the final stretch of soil. From this close, he could see that its body was only a couple of inches thick. Despite its strange shape, it seemed to be solid, rather than gelatinous like the bone slime.

  It skulked behind the quill-covered monster and then waited to make its move. The moment that the hedgehippo reared up and placed two broad feet against the boulder, the flat monster flowed beneath it.

  The first monster was stealthy, but the second was totally silent. Edge would never have known it was there if he hadn’t watched it approach from an elevated vantage. Half a heartbeat later, it went in for the kill.

  The black monster slid beneath the hedgehippo’s underbelly as it gathered its strength to leap. Before it could complete its jump, the flat monster struck in a flash.

  Despite the seriousness of his situation, he was curious to find out what skills it was packing, given its unusual shape. As it happened, the creature’s powers were even stranger than he had imagined. To Edge’s astonishment, a jet-black blade shot up from the center of its body, plunging into the soft stomach of the bulky monster, where its spikes didn’t protrude.

  Then the malleable blade split into three pieces, carving a deep wedge into the hedgehippo’s guts. It was a deadly attack, but it wasn’t over yet. The outer blades rotated so that the cutting surfaces were facing opposite directions, then the whole thing began to spin, carving out a cylinder of flesh like it was coring an apple.

  It whirling weapon picked up speed until it cut all the way through. Then the spikes curved into hooks and retracted, pulling out the hippo’s stomach along with a cross-section of severed organs. Everything had taken place within the span of two seconds. By the time that the hedgehippo knew it was under attack, it was already mortally wounded.

  The spiky creature came crashing to the ground as the flat monster darted out from under it. Edge let out a deep, shuddering breath, careful not to make a sound. It had been a close call, but he had made the right choice. He was lucky that the black monster hadn’t noticed he was there, since it was focused on hunting the hedgehippo.

  Once the spike-covered monster finished bleeding out, the black monster proceeded to feast. He wasn’t sure how it intended to devour the massive creature. When he learned the answer, he wished that he hadn’t. The thin monster climbed on top of the corpse, granting him a glimpse of its underside.

  It was something straight out of a nightmare. In addition to thousands of little hook-feet, the bottom of the black monster was covered in circular mouths—round orifices that were pulsing, with rows of bladed teeth set within. Once it had scaled the corpse, the skittering horror spread itself out like a blanket, and its army of mouths went to work.

  Edge fought to keep himself from vomiting as monster devoured the hedgehippo, spikes and all. It wasn’t so much the sight of it, although that was deeply disturbing. But the sound was so much worse.

  He shut out the cacophony of a hundred mouths chewing, crunching and clacking and sucking and slurping until they finished their grisly work. By the time that the black monster flowed away, not a drop of blood remained to stain the earth. Its departure was sluggish compared to its arrival, and it was several feet thicker than before.

  He sat there for long minutes after the monster was out of sight, making sure that it was really gone before resuming his trek across the Savage Garden. The close encounter had been eye-opening, renewing his resolve that fighting in the swamp was a terminally-bad idea.

  Edge prayed that he made it out before he encountered a threat that he couldn’t avoid, unaware that the denizens of the dungeon weren’t the only predators lurking inside.