As requested, by popular vote, book 3 prologue!

 Please be aware, all of this material is owned solely by Dakota Krout, and is protected under copyright law. Also, it is subject to change, as this has not yet been through the editing process. Enjoy!

~Prologue~ 

“Just ignore it, Rob. Of course you feel like you are being watched, ya paranoid…” The tiny human tried to comfort his brother-in-arms. “There are monsters going crazy in here, and the place is changing constantly. We just need to go through one more time, and even with the crazy rebuilding tax we will be set for life! We’re already on the fourth floor, might as well finish the labyrinth, right?”

“I don’t like it.” The uncomfortable man shuddered as he felt the alien mind appraising him again. “You know I can tell when I’m being watched, and whatever this is, is watching. It wants us dead.”

His comrade sighed. “We just went over this. This is a dungeon. Of course everything here wants us dead, but for the money-”

The words were cut off as the floor beneath them shifted subtly. A feeling similar to a seesaw dropping made them stumble, and their pulse began to race! The floor dropped only another few inches when a *click* behind them made them whirl around, too late to notice the rising stone that blocked off the group of fives’ path of retreat. All light had fled, leaving them in utter darkness. Panicking for a moment, the men tightened their formation. Their eyes had begun to adjust incrementally when a glimmer of light washed over them, near blinding after the immersion into darkness. Still wary, they moved toward the light. On a small, intricately carved pillar lay a tablet of stone. The light fell from above and illuminated words carved deeply into the rock.

“What does it say?”

“I can’t read. Rob, get over here!”

Rob stepped forward, glancing around as the mind stared at him again. His hackles rose, and he tried to gulp air into his dehydrated lungs. He looked at the words, easily reading them but failing to understand their meaning.

“Well?” Rob got slapped on his rear. “What does it say?”

“It says ‘You have entered the trials. Trial one: Carry your weight and the rewards shall be great. Else; one for all.’ The punctuation is all funny-like. Whatever that means.” Rob rubbed his butt, that slap had been way too hard.

“Huh. What do you think that means?”

"I hate poems. They always mean dangerous things are about to happen."

“Is the light in here getting brighter?”

“The ceiling! Look at the ceiling!” They looked up to see the ceiling - now visible and covered in jagged metal spikes - descending toward them slowly. Rob looked around for an opening, a way out of the trap, anything! As the ceiling fell, a small section of stone lifted. The opening behind it was only enough for one person to crawl through.

“There are spots on the roof that don't have spikes! Five spots, five of us! We need to hold the ceiling up!” One of the men called loudly. They rushed to find a spot that they could fit into, the roof was curved specifically to match the average height of adventurers. They raised their hands, and the stone came to rest in each of their palms at the same time. Grunts were elicited from each of them as the heavy trap rested on their shoulders. Pushing and straining, they heaved and called out encouragement to each other as the minutes passed.

Rob began to panic as he felt a sense of satisfaction from the probing presence. “We’re going to die! It’s going to kill us no matter what we do!” The feeling of satisfaction wavered as Rob looked at the opening. It wasn’t so far away, was it? He could make it in the few seconds it would take the ceiling to fall. His fear-addled mind raced as he thought of the test. One for all, one for all… so everyone would die, or one person could survive? Rob’s eyes narrowed. He wasn’t dying for these people. Not here. Not like this!

“Rob! No! What are you doing?!” Rob heard as he dived under the spikes and crawled as fast as he could for the hole in the wall. The ceiling lowered by a few deadly inches.

“I’m surviving!” Rob drug himself the last little way into the hole and looked around. There! There was a Rune on the floor! He placed his hand on the activation pattern and flooded it with Essence. The cries of his old team were cut off as the wall behind Rob closed off, leaving him in the small space. He waited for an exit to appear. And waited. He didn’t even realize when he slipped into sleep, the oxygen content too minor to allow his panicked mind to remain awake.

Outside the tiny room, a joyous scene was playing out.

“It’s going up!”

“Rob did it! He must have deactivated the trap!”

“He did nothing but try to save himself! That must have backfired on him.” Their leader growled at the jubilant faces. “Think about it. One for all, or ‘carry your weight’. He thought that meant he could trade our lives to save his sorry skin, but it really meant he would die to save us.” He scoffed. “The worst kind of self-sacrifice. Let’s get the abyss out of here.”

“Look! A chest!”

“Look at all those tokens!”