Jonah grabbed my arm and yanked me to the side at the last minute, causing the knife to fly past my head into the room behind us. A moment later, Ruth jumped out of the entry room, closing the door behind her before she rolled to the side to join us, avoiding another flying knife that nearly hit her head.

  “Whoa!” said Nimbus, his claws digging into my shoulder as we staggered against the wall next to Jonah. “Where did that knife come from? Throwing knives at people isn’t very safe.”

  Jonah, who stood next to us holding his trident, pointed at the other end of the room. “Monkey statue.”

  Puzzled, Nimbus and I followed Jonah’s pointing finger, which let us see both the source of the attack and the room as a whole that we had just entered.

  We emerged into a 20-by-20-foot stone chamber similar to the entryway, but the walls, ceiling, and floor looked much more worn and cracked, which made no sense to me if we were the first to find this dungeon in centuries. Green and black vines and moss covered the walls, floor, and ceiling, adding a fresh if slightly muddy scent to the room. It was also much colder than the entryway, even though it was literally just one room over. The change in temperature made me shiver slightly, though my robes were warm enough.

  But my eyes were drawn to two objects at the other end of the room that were obviously the most important parts of this chamber.

  The first was a door covered by a barrier of thick, crisscrossing vines that looked intimidatingly complex even to me. Unlike the vines and plant growth in the rest of the room, the vines on the door appeared to have been deliberately grown that way—probably designed by the dungeon itself, or rather the Codex Node that the dungeon was protecting.

  And sitting directly above the Dungeon Gate, built into the wall overhead, was a stone statue of a Tree Chimp, a type of monkey you occasionally saw in the North Forest area, though they were pretty rare. I only recognized it because it matched the description of a Tree Chimp that my dad had seen once in his youth while exploring the forest with his father when he was around my age.

  But even as I watched, the stone statue twisted its right arm behind itself in an unnatural way and pulled out another knife. Yet it did not throw the knife at us. It merely stared at us with softly glowing green eyes, its mouth frozen in a wicked grin.

  Ruth, dusting off her robes as she rose to her feet beside us, frowned when she looked at the Tree Chimp Guardian as well. “A Golem Guardian Puzzle? That seems simple enough.”

  I looked at Ruth in confusion. “What’s a Golem Guardian Puzzle?”

  Jonah answered for her. “A very basic kind of dungeon trap usually found in common dungeons like this one. Most of them are pretty simple. There’s usually a golem of some sort sitting at the end of the room, and your job is to either defeat it or get past it to the exit. We probably just need to get past the golem—which is what that Tree Chimp Guardian is—and reach the door to advance to the next room.”

  I pursed my lips. “The next room? How many rooms does this floor have?”

  As if in response to my question, all three of our portables pinged at once and a group notification appeared before us:

  You have entered the first floor of the Verdant Seal!

  To complete the first floor, you must pass through and finish the three rooms that comprise this floor. Each room contains a different puzzle or challenge designed to push your Codex Party to its limits. However difficult these rooms may be, they are not impossible to complete, though you may need to listen closely and keep your eyes open for the clues you need to succeed.

  The notification vanished and was replaced by another one that scrolled into view:

  Room 1 of 3: The Tree Chimp Guardian

  To complete this room, you must make it past the Tree Chimp Guardian protecting the gate at the other end. The Tree Chimp Guardian will throw knives at you to prevent you from getting close to the gate, but it will not actually leave its position above the gate to chase you or any of your party members.

  Please note, however, that though the Tree Chimp Guardian may be the most obvious obstacle in the room, there may be others that are not immediately obvious. As always, proceed with caution.

  Jonah smirked beside me. “Easy. I bet we’ll clear this entire floor in a day, especially if we are quick about it.”

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  I wished I could have felt as confident about our odds of success as Jonah, but the last part about other obstacles in the room that weren’t obvious worried me quite a bit. I also thought that the vine-covered Dungeon Gate at the other end of the room had to be more important than it seemed, though perhaps the vines would go away once we got past the Tree Chimp Guardian.

  Jonah looked at me, Nimbus, and Ruth. “Here’s the plan. I suspect that the Tree Chimp Guardian will start throwing knives at us again as soon as we start moving. Therefore, I will take the lead and summon a barrier to protect us from the knives. Unfortunately, I don’t have a team barrier spell, but as long as you guys stay right behind me, you should be protected by my barrier regardless.”

  I raised a hand quizzically. “That reminds me, you still haven’t told us what your Discipline is yet, Jonah.”

  Jonah appeared annoyed by my question, but he said, “Aegiscaller. It basically means I can create barriers and force fields to use as living weapons. Primarily a defensive Discipline, but it has offensive capabilities as well. For now, though, it should be more than enough to get all four of us to the other side of the room without getting harmed by the golem’s knives.”

  Nimbus huffed. “But that is really boring. And it still leaves us open to possibly being injured. I could probably Phase Step to the other side of the room and disable the golem so you guys can cross without getting injured.”

  Jonah shook his head. “That won’t work. The door most likely won’t open until all of us get there. Plus, it probably isn’t possible to disable the golem at all. I doubt you are strong enough to destroy it, though I bet Aaron could probably hack into it with his Discipline if he wanted to.”

  I cleared my throat. “It’s not really hacking. It’s more like—”

  “Whatever.” Jonah had already turned his back on us and raised his right hand. A glowing silver-blue barrier suddenly manifested in front of us as he cast a spell. “Shield is activated. Let’s go!”

  Jonah took off before any of us could object to the plan. Nonetheless, we ran after him single file, with Ruth at the back and myself in the middle right behind Jonah. Already, I could tell that I was a lot faster after turning to Page Two in my Codex, though not as fast as Jonah, who kept in front of us the entire time without issue. I made a mental note to check his and Ruth’s Chapters and Pages in our Party Page at some point, if only so I knew how strong they actually were. A part of me wished I’d scanned them earlier, but there had been no time for that.

  As soon as we were running across the room, the Tree Chimp Guardian started throwing knives at us again. But the knives bounced harmlessly off Jonah’s barrier onto the floor around us—which was good, because the Tree Chimp Guardian launched them with deadly speed and accuracy. I was pretty sure it was aiming directly for Jonah’s forehead, but again, his barrier protected his head and, by extension, the rest of us as we ran. Cracks appeared in Jonah’s barrier every time a knife collided with it, but the cracks would repair themselves between knife throws.

  As a result, we reached the gate in less than a minute. That put us directly underneath the Tree Chimp Guardian, which immediately stopped throwing knives at us as soon as we got underneath it. Apparently, the Tree Chimp Guardian could only throw knives directly ahead of itself and not below.

  Looking over my shoulder, I saw that the floor of the room was now covered in knives. One such knife was close enough that I could examine it with my portable, which I did out of curiosity to see if it was loot or not:

  Item Name: Golem Throwing Knife

  Item Type: Weapon

  Rarity: Common

  Owner: Tree Chimp Golem

  Codex Tag: Dungeon-Forged

  Chapter Requirement: 1

  Description:

  A simple yet deadly knife wielded by the Tree Chimp Guardian of the Verdant Seal. Has no inherent Codexed qualities aside from the glyphs granting the user greater speed and accuracy when they throw it.

  Functions & Abilities:

  Flight of the Knife

  When thrown by user, has greater speed and accuracy

  Increased Speed and Accuracy (Passive)

  When melted down and crafted with another item, has a 10% chance of passing its skill onto the newly crafted item.

  Has a 1% chance of increasing your Dexterity.

  Limitations:

  Will not return to the user when thrown.

  Codex Note:

  “Throw this item when you really want someone to have a bad day.”

  “Aaron, what are you doing?” asked Jonah, his voice sharp. “We need to get going.”

  Startled out of my focus, I looked over at Jonah, who stood with his arms folded in front of his chest, frowning deeply in front of the gate. Ruth stood beside him, leaning on her staff while panting slightly.

  I gestured at the nearest golem throwing knife. “I was just trying to see if this throwing knife was useful or not.”

  Jonah shook his head and turned toward the gate. “It’s basic dungeon trash. I wouldn’t bother with it if I were you.”

  I frowned. “Why not? This is a new dungeon. Doesn’t that make even basic loot more valuable?”

  “The main benefits of discovering and completing a new dungeon come from the rewards you get for completing it,” said Jonah without looking over his shoulder at me. “Sure, you might occasionally get some decent loot, but that’s not what we really want. And since we are on a deadline, that means we don’t have time to waste picking up random loot that probably isn’t even useful anyway.”

  Ruth, wiping sweat off her forehead, gave Jonah a reproachful look. “You don’t need to be in such a hurry, you know. That was a really risky plan that could have gotten us killed back there.”

  Jonah lifted his nose up at Ruth. “But it didn’t, now did it? Besides, I’m the Party Captain, so what I say goes. Though if the next two rooms are just as easy as this one, then I doubt it will take us more than a day at most to get through here. Then we can teach that Wolfbrand guy a lesson.”

  Jonah then walked up to the Dungeon Gate and put one hand on it.

  And then all hell broke loose.

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