Chloe and I, still hand-in-hand, emerge into what appears to be a labyrinth. As expected, the shimmering portal back to the entrance disappears behind us, leaving us trapped in this space. Thankfully, there’s no swarm of monsters ready to ambush us the moment we appear, and so we have a brief moment to reorient ourselves and cast our [Angel’s Grace] and [Saintess’s Blessing] on one another. Unfortunately, as soon as I finish my cast and feel the small draining sensation away from my [Ether] core, I remember the whole ‘half of normal [Ether] regeneration while in dungeons’ condition. I wonder if the other half is used to power the obvious spatial modifications made to the place.

The air is cool, but in a refreshing sort of way. The walls are a heavily-tinted shade of teal, with tessellating patterns carved into them. I see no glyphs on the walls, and while they glow brightly enough to see without difficulty, there are no windows or skylights or other sources of natural light anywhere that I can see.

There are branching pathways just ahead on either side of us, along with another path that leads straight ahead. None of the three options stand out as being particularly better or worse than any others. Even with [Archangel’s Gaze] to glance in every direction at once, I don’t see any obvious tells that would alert me to the best direction in which to start.

“Right hand rule?” Chloe asks.

Again, I marvel at how useful the telepathic component of our [Angelic Bond] is. We can discuss strategy completely silently, making sure we’re coordinating our Skills optimally while not tipping off any intelligent enemies about what we’re trying to do.

“Sounds like a plan.”

And with that, we follow the old heuristic of always taking the rightmost path when traversing a maze. Almost certainly not the optimal path for getting through, and I’ll have to see if there are some better heuristics we can use in the future. But it’s a solid, systematic approach.

We turn around the first corner, only to be spotted by a pair of sentry robots. They look not too dissimilar from the ones we encountered during our first trip into the tower. The instant they move, however, I realize their combat parameters are set significantly higher.

I fire an [Ether Bullet Barrage] at the one on my left. Three of the bullets miss. Another four hit their mark, denting but not piercing their armored frames. Shit.

The one on my right has accelerated even further, reaching out with a metallic arm to grab Chloe by the neck. I intercept, and with a single motion, grab the hand just before it’s about to mar Chloe’s beauty. In a single motion, I fling it up in the air and attempt to use its body to swat the other like I’m playing the world’s oddest game of baseball.

But I miss. Chloe, however, manages to land a [Piercing Beam], hitting one of the divots my earlier attack caused. This attack actually manages to break through the metallic carapace and seems to deal good damage to the creature. Not wanting to miss the opportunity for a follow-up, I again swing the robot I still have grappled, though now I’ve gripped its other arm inside my [Mechanical Arm Cannon] as well. This time, my attack is successful, and I manage to significantly dent both of them.

With a quick flourish, I throw the robot down onto the ground and again fire with my [Mechanical Arm Cannon], this time scoring five direct headshots. Unfortunately, these robots lack the weaknesses of organic beings, or even cybernetic ones like myself, so I fail to get a kill notification from the System just yet. But it’s only a matter of time. And a minute later, Chloe and I finish both of them off, the System finally confirming the results of our work.

[You have scrapped two Sentry Robots (Level 33, 34). You have gained a boosted 1,950 Experience.]

[Level: 38; Experience: 699,730; To Next: 29,595]

Damn, Experience scaling is really an absolute bitch. Just a couple of weeks ago, I was getting multiple tens of thousands of Experience for beating a monster with levels in the mid thirties, even with a whole crew of people providing backup and assistance. Now I get barely two thousand. On the other hand, this wasn’t a particularly difficult fight. I didn’t have to use [Glyphcasting] at all, and I used barely two hundred points of [Ether] for my [Ether Bullets].

“You holding up okay, Chloe?” I ask.

“Yep. Just processing my level increase to 36… and done!”

After confirming that we’re ready to move on, we proceed down the next hallway, then the next. As we’re about to round the third corner, I pull Chloe back, my [Archangel’s Gaze] noticing movement before her head pops in front of the wall.

“Is there something there?”

“Three more robots. They haven’t noticed us, and I’d like to see if we can get a sneak attack.”

Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s any mechanic like in video games where we can get a free turn if we get a first strike. Then again, there aren’t turns to speak of, either. But, having a chance to prepare a [Glyphcasting] array beforehand is still a good idea. Robots and other metal automatons are traditionally weak to lightning-based attacks, and I see no reason to believe the same won’t hold true here. So I slot [Lightning] together with a new glyph, [Repetition]. Or maybe [Multiplicity]? In either case, it should simulate a [Chain Lightning] spell, hitting all of them at once.

“Ready?” Chloe asks.

“I am. Waiting for them to– Ah, shit, I think they’ve noticed the spell array somehow. Oh well, here goes nothing!”

I charge out and hit the robot nearest me with my spell. As expected, the sentry is temporarily stunned as my violet bolts penetrate through its metallic armor. However, what follows next is unexpected. Instead of chaining off the sentry and striking the other two robots, three more bolts launch outward. Two of them hit the robots as expected. But to my great horror, the last one gets knocked off course by my wings behind me. That errant electrical bolt spins around and hits Chloe square in the chest. Her [Wyvernscale Buckler] deflects and absorbs some of the damage, but not all of it.

Her body convulses; I realize that she didn’t cloak herself in [Saintess’s Cloister]. But that’s no excuse for my getting careless either. I should have foreseen that my spell would have such a side effect, or at least, that there was the potential for such an effect.

I immediately force the rest of the spell shut, suffering a small bit of blowback damage. Thankfully, Chloe is able to heal herself in short order during the brief moment while the robots are stunned. I sense her fear, her pain, and I know we’ll need to have a conversation when this fight is over. I’m grateful, though, that Chloe has enough sense to focus on the fight. A fight that doesn’t take very long; a few [Ether Bullet Barrages] and a couple of [Piercing Beams] later and all three of the robots are scrapped.

[You have scrapped three Sentry Robots (Level 33, 33, 34). You have gained a boosted 3,050 Experience.]

[Level: 38; Experience: 702,780; To Next: 26,545]

[Your [Ether Bullet Barrage (Rank VIII)] has upgraded to [Ether Bullet Barrage (Rank IX)].]

A bit odd. Given the third robot in this formation was Level 33, I would have expected to get less than 2,925 Experience, based on the Experience function being linear with respect to the enemies defeated. But that doesn’t appear to be the case here. Instead, I have to assume that Experience is based on some overall difficulty of the fight as a whole. But then, why would it allocate Experience for each enemy separately like it did with the harpies a week ago? There’s definitely a lot of different Experience multipliers at play, most of which I don’t know about yet. Maybe I can find more out.

I spot a treasure chest just ahead, but before we claim its contents, it’s time to have that conversation.

“Chloe, I’m sorry. Regardless of my intentions, I should have been aware that some sort of side effect like that was a possibility. If I had realized it, I would have gone with a different array or a different strategy altogether.”

“That’s what I’m worried about, Sera. I– I know how useful your [Glyphcasting] is. It saved countless lives last week, and for that, I’m sure that so many people are grateful. But you and I both know how dangerous it is.” She points to my metallic right arm. “I should have known this was a possibility too.”

I shake my head. “No. That’s my responsibility, not yours. We’re bonded partners now, and regardless of circumstances, the fact remains that I hurt you. I want you to know both that I’m sorry, and that I’ll make it up to you however you feel I need to.”

Chloe closes her eyes and thinks. She’s still hurt, but… I still sense her deep love through our bond. “I know you didn’t mean it, and part of that is my fault that I didn’t use my [Saintess’s Cloister], but–”

“Not an excuse on my end. I should have warned you that I was trying a new spell and given you the chance to stand back and protect yourself first.”

“Promise me that you’ll do so in the future.”

“I will,” I whisper.

I reach my arms out for a hug, though I devote enough of my mental energy to keep [Archangel’s Gaze] active, looking for any threats. After a moment of hesitation, Chloe accepts. She looks a bit odd through this new sight, especially when she’s so close. But she’s Chloe, and so she’s beautiful and perfect, no matter how she might visually appear.

“Treasure?” I ask.

Chloe nods. I tepidly move toward the chest, still wary that any of these could be mimics. Chloe raises her hand, her [Piercing Beam] spell at the ready. I wince at the last second, expecting to be attacked out of nowhere, but as I touch the lid, I relax. The chest opens, revealing a pair of very ostentatious olive-green combat boots.

“Do you want them?” I ask Chloe. I would gladly give them to her if she does and her class will allow her to wear them.

She reaches for them before setting them down and shaking her head. “Just got a System notification warning me that they’re not compatible with my Class.”

I pick them up, and after receiving no such warning, I remove my [Boots of Impulse] and set them back in the chest, slipping on the [Bulwark Boots] in their place. I’m quite impressed with their comfort. Like other System-registered armor we’ve found in dungeons, it has extra glyphs contained within to allow them to adjust their sizing for maximum comfort. And the defensive properties are nothing to sneeze at, either.

[[Bulwark Boots]: A pair of combat boots which reject the notion of sacrificing style for efficacy. Increases [Defense] by 25 and [Agility] by 5. In addition, the [Bulwark Boots] continuously cast the spell [Minor Bulwark], reducing all incoming damage dealt by 5%. (Damage reduction stacks multiplicatively with other instances of the same effect.)]

So, this is what the System calls stylish? Considering it calls my hot pink [Bandana of Swiftness] gaudy, I’m not sure I can trust its fashion sense. I can, however, appreciate their effectiveness.

“Wow, Sera,” Chloe says. “Those do look great on you.”

“Thanks. Ready to keep traversing?”

Chloe gives a nod, and we make our way down the next passage. Here, we find a stairway of brilliant amethyst. Probably the way forward, and if I had to guess, it’ll disappear behind us.

“Do we go on, or do we see if there’s anything else on this floor?”

Chloe pauses for a minute. “I think we should go on. There’s likely better things on the later floors, and the monsters here aren’t too threatening, friendly fire notwithstanding.”

I smile. “Yeah. I agree. Just wanted to make sure I’m doing better about not deciding things without getting your input first.”

“I appreciate it. Time to move on.” she messages, and we head up to Floor 3.