Bread. It rises when subjected to extreme heat, making it a delicious and tasty treat. Me. I die when subjected to extreme heat, making me dead and more dead. In conclusion, Bread is stronger than me. I always knew it, but to have this be hammered into my head by reality is honestly a bit disheartening. Hail, our bread Gods.

  “Charlatan, I would recommend you pay attention. I’d rather not have to explain why your legs are missing,” Penelope says as she wipes the sweat from her brow.

  Pulling myself out of my heated daze, I look down to see that I’ve almost walked into a lava pit. “I knew that. I just thought I saw something in the lava,” I [Lie].

  Penelope sighs. “At least you’re not like Hopper.”

  Looking back at Hopper, I find him collapsed face down on the ground. “You good back there, Hopper?” I ask as I slowly make my way towards him.

  A barely audible groan escapes his body as he struggles to give me a thumbs up.

  “It seems we really do need these Heat Resistance potions,” she says as she pulls out three potions.

  Taking one of the blue potions, I can feel my fingers numbing from the frost on it. Shouldn't hold onto it for too long. I actually like having all my fingers. Hopper fails to grab the potion as he weakly misses it.

  “Sorry about this, bud,” I say as I roll him over and shove the potion down his throat.

  The frost-blue liquid drains from the potion and into his mouth. Then, in an instant, he jumps to his feet.

  “Okay, that’s cold! I can feel it going down my stomach! By the Gods!” he exclaims as he starts to shiver.

  Rolling my potion between my fingers, I wonder if I really need this. Hopper's fingertips begin to turn a dark shade of blue. Yeah, I don’t need- A potion suddenly finds itself in my mouth as Penelope shoves it in my mouth.

  “Sorry, Charlatan. You need to take this,” she says with a sweet smile.

  What can only be described as the pure ice flows through my body. As it does, the heatstroke quickly vanishes only to be replaced by the barely bearable frostbite. The ever-present chill in my body fights against the sweltering heat, creating something I thought I would only experience in the hells.

  “Oh, for the love of the Gods! Why in the hells did this floor have to be a lava floor?” I ask.

  Penelope downs her potion and lets out a cloud of icy breath. “Stop whining. It works, doesn’t it?”

  “Oh, yeah. We’re no longer suffering from heatstroke; Now we’re suffering from frostbite. What a great improvement," I say sarcastically.

  “Do you know how much work I had to put in to even get these potions? We even had to spend an extra day in that swamp waiting for these potions. How about some gratitude?”

  Hopper hops around in a circle. “Thank you, Princess. I’m much more suited for the cold.”

  “Fine. Thank you, Penelope. It pains me to say this, but it does feel easier to think now,” I whisper the last part as I scratch my horn.

  With a shit-eating grin, Penelope looks over at me. “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear that. Mind repeating it?”

  “I said thanks. Don’t make a big deal out of it,” I say as I look around the area.

  “Fine. I’ll let you off the hook. Now that we’re not literally boiling alive. Let's check this floor out and find the entrance to the next. We only have so many potions,” she explains.

  She’s right. Unlike the other floors, we’re on a time crunch. Each potion lasts about an hour, and we have six potions left. Which means we need to find the entrance to the next floor in three days, including today, of course. The problem? This floor is big. B, I, G, big. I mean, we got lava as far as the eye can see. We’ve got lava pools, lava oceans, lavafalls, and not to mention lava monsters.

  A large snail made of lava slowly rises out of the lava, sees us, and then dives back under. Yeah, I would do the same, honestly. Where do we even start?

  Hopper looks out in every direction and then scratches his head. “I’m hearing enemies in just about every direction. It’s up to you guys on which direction you want to take.”

  Penelope thinks for a second before turning to me. “Any thoughts, Charlatan?”

  “Well, I’m getting a bad feeling from this entire place,” I say and think about whether I want to tell her about this next part.

  “And?”

  “I’m getting an extra bad feeling from that direction,” I say as I point north of us beyond the lavafall.

  Her eyes fixate in that direction before turning to Hopper.

  Hopper shakes his head. “I don’t hear anything special from that direction, but the lavafall is making a lot of noise. Makes it a bit difficult to get a bead on anything in that direction. I will say, most apex predators in the north like to create territories, and that looks like a good one,” he explains.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Then we should go hunt it,” she says.

  “Wait a moment there, Penelope. Don’t you remember what happened with the Giant?”

  “Yes, vividly. I’m not saying we take it on now, but realistically, the exit is probably near whatever is in that direction. We’re going to have to fight it eventually. I’d rather not go in blind,” she says, making a good point.

  “Okay, but we need to be sneaky. Let's send Hopper,” I say.

  “Ok, I can agree to that.”

  “Well, I don’t! Don’t I have a say in this?” Hopper insists.

  I nod my head. “Okay. All in favor of Hopper using his [Skill] specifically made for sneaking to scout ahead?”

  Penelope and I raise our hands.

  Hopper sighs. “Fine, but if I die, I’m haunting you two until the end of time,” he threatens.

  “Noted,” Penelope says.

  “It’ll be nice to have you with me until the end of time,” I joke.

  Hopper waves us off as we head towards the lavafall.

  Sitting on the edge of a rock, I let out a yawn. It took us a lot longer to get this close to the lavafall than we expected. Turns out rock climbing is much more difficult than you might think.

  “How are you always tired?” Penelope asks as she sits on the edge with me.

  “I’m a busy man, Penelope, busy man. I have many things that I do in the cover of night. Many Chosen things. You wouldn’t understand,” I joke.

  “Really? From what Hopper tells me, you sleep most of the day away after you get back from the greenhouse. So, you can’t be that busy,” she retorts.

  “Like he would know. He spends most nights over at Dianthus Hall.”

  “Still? I thought he and Lupin cleared everything up. Why would he have to keep sneaking over?” Penelope asks.

  With a devilish smile, I give her a look. “Oh, please, Penelope. Sure, he’s happy to have his friend back, but Hopper also wants to spend some time alone with Luna.”

  “Are you sure they’re not courting yet?” she asks.

  “No, but I’m sure they’ll get there soon enough. It’s best not to rush those kinds of things.”

  “Rush, no, but you can’t let things drag on for too long. One side may move on if you do, or better yet, some other harlot may come along and snatch him away,” she says.

  I look deep into her emerald eyes.

  “What? Do I have something on my face?”

  “You’ve been reading ‘Torn Between Two Paths’, haven’t you?” I accuse.

  The tip of her Half-Elf ears turns a shade of crimson matching the lava around us. “No. Not at all. What would give you that idea? I would never read, what did you call it?” she refuses far too much.

  “Of course not. You would never read that awful and trashy romance novel. I mean, it’s not even worth the paper it’s written on. Not to mention the love interests are so bland-”

  “They are not bland. Varm is a very troubled and complicated character with a tragic backstory, and don’t even get me started on Kall. The amount he has had to go through in order to stand on even ground with our main heroine Alska is honestly inspiring. To call them bland would be the same as calling this lava cold,” she says in a huff.

  Leaning on my hand, I lose my train of thought momentarily. “Really, never read it, huh?”

  Her eyes go wide as she realises the trap she stepped into. “That’s what Alfira, my maid, said. She loves those books and can’t stop raving about them. I’m just repeating what she said, that's all,” she lies through her teeth.

  Watching her get all flustered is fun, but I think I’ve had enough fun. Don’t want her to feel bad about the things she likes.

  “Well, tell Alfira that she has good taste. It’s one of the better romance novels out there,” I say as I let out a yawn.

  Suspicion settles in her eyes. “Yeah, right. Like you’ve read it,” she says with a dismissive tone.

  “I mean, if Alfira doesn’t believe me, you can tell her that my favorite character is the dark magic user Hast.”

  As soon as the words leave my mouth, an almost invisible gleam appears in Penelope's eyes. “You know of Hast? You’ve actually read it? Why? How far are you? Have you read the latest one? What did you think about the moonlight scene?”

  As she fires off a barrage of questions, I think back on my sister and how she forced me to listen to her ramble on about the book to the point of nausea. At some point, I read it myself to see what all the fuss was about and actually liked it. Which made my sister's ramblings even worse since I would actually argue with her. Ah, fun times.

  “I’m fairly certain I’m caught up with the latest release, and well, I read it because I like it. It’s a good story,” I say, hiding a hint of embarrassment.

  “Isn’t it! Gods, I remember when I first found the series, and I read the whole thing in a couple of days,” she says as she starts to rattle off about the book.

  Seems she's completely forgotten her Alfira excuse. Maybe I should remind her about it. As I go to say something, my voice catches in my throat as her eyes dance in glee and her smile grows brighter. Eh, I’ll let this one slide. …Why am I letting this slide?

  Before I can think much more on that thought, Hopper appears behind us. “Good to see you guys are having fun while I’m risking my life,” he says as he bats away the flames on his uniform.

  “What took you so long, Hopper? We were getting bored,” I ask with a devilish smile.

  “What took me so long? Oh, I don’t know, maybe it was the giant Fire Salamander on the other side of that lavafall!”

  Penelope looks worried as she looks back at the lavafall. “Did it see you, and how big was it?”

  “No, it didn’t see me, but it’s big. About the size of a large house big,” he says as he gestures with his hands.

  “Now, I’m not one to pay attention during class, but aren’t Fire Salamanders baby Dragons?” I ask with a hint of worry.

  “Close. When a Fire Salamander [Levels Up] enough, it will eventually become a Lesser Dragon, or better known as a Drake. If it’s already the size of a large house, then it’s nearing the point where it becomes a Drake. We’ll want to take it out before it does,” Penelope explains.

  “What happens if we don’t?” I ask the obvious question.

  “Our chances of beating it drop dramatically.”

  “Then I guess it’s time to come up with a plan,” I say.

  “What a busy week,” Hopper laments with a sigh.

  “Could be worse. Could be a Dragon,” I joke.