Walking through the doorway we were met with another long corridor. Or so I initially thought. I noticed the raised dais at the far end of the room. On top of it were several tall, ornate chairs. Down the center of the corridor was a deep red carpet over marble floors. As we stepped deeper into the corridor I realized that it was wider than I initially thought. There were columns flanking the carpet down the middle and then seating off to the side. Oh…we weren’t in a corridor, we were in an ostentatious throne room. Yay. Nothing bad would come of that.

  Behind the thrones were giant stained glass windows that painted the room in brilliant colors. I couldn’t quite make out the scene depicted in the window, it seemed kind of abstract. It was extremely colorful and cast its light far into the room.

  I sighed deeply and followed behind the rest of the team. We walked slowly and openly down the carpet as we approached the thrones. As we came closer I noticed a figure draped haphazardly across both larger thrones in the center. He wore a creepy white mask with an extremely long nose and grotesque smile stretched from ear to ear. Atop his head sat the stereotypical jester’s crown with the little bells dangling from several arms. He was clothed in multicolored tights. On his feet jingled a pair of shoes with curling toes with little bells attached. In his hands he held a scepter with his masked face set as the top piece.

  The jester stood up as we neared the dais. Before we could step up the stairs he leapt to the top of the thrones, balanced across the top of the two central ones, bells tinkling. He cackled loudly. It was more than a little unhinged and made me want to back away and come back with a tranq gun.

  He didn’t say a word, just kept laughing hysterically. Mara was the first to grow tired of it. She reached forward, clenched her fist and slammed it downward. The jester flipped off the top of the thrones right as Mara’s gravity field smashed them much flatter. She had missed the jester. Barely, but somehow she’d still missed him. He landed behind the thrones and threw his arms up like a gymnast sticking the landing. He’d finally stopped laughing.

  He raised his scepter like a wand and pointed it at us. We all dove quickly out of the way, scattering in several directions at once. John was too slow though. He was caught by a bright pink beam of light then he collapsed onto his knees. His body started shaking and convulsing. Oliver started to run back to him when John’s head rocked back and he let out the loudest guffaw and then burst into his own deep laughter. Oliver skittered to a halt at his side and looked at him funny before his eyes widened. He jumped back out of the way as the jester barreled in with a knee to John’s chest. It barely moved the tall metal covered man.

  Ashley called out for Oliver to drop. As soon as he was clear she opened up at the jester. Short controlled claps of thunder rang out as she tracked him bouncing all across the room. For all her precision and experience though, she couldn’t lead him when she couldn’t predict which direction he was about to move in. The jester tumbled, sprinted, and flipped all across the room, staying one step ahead of Ashley and her rifle. His little bells ringing with every movement.

  “Oliver, sweep to the left! Grace, move to the right!” Mara called out. “We’re gonna pin that little shit in the corner and turn him into melted Swiss cheese.” She moved to the side of Ashley and they began creeping forward.

  Oliver hurried off to the side, determined look on his face, and I darted away in the other direction. I had to run pretty far out before I was able to get in front of the jester and start corralling him toward the others with thrusts of my spear. He didn’t seem to take me seriously as a threat, but he still moved away from me reluctantly.

  He came to a sudden stop, turned and slashed his wand at Ashley. She dove to the side, seeming to hide inside Mara’s shadow for a brief instant. A bright purple whip flashed out and struck the air where she had just been. It landed with a loud crack and explosion of force.

  Mara stepped forward and let forth with a devastating beam attack of pure energy. The jester seemed to dance just out of the way before she cut off her attack. She was breathing a little heavier than she had been.

  Ashley stepped back out of Mara’s shadow and picked back up her methodical firing of her gun. The longest she went without firing was briefly when she switched out mags or whatever they’re called.

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

  The jester took the opportunity to fire another spell off, this time at Mara. She didn’t dodge fast enough and ended up taking what looked like a literal pie to the face. Less than a second later she was screaming bloody murder, swiping at her face. I rushed toward my friend but was waved off by Oliver as he ran to her.

  Oliver poured water over her face, quickly washing off the ‘pie.’ Underneath Mara’s skin was red and already swelling. Oliver reached out with a glowing hand and a few seconds later her skin returned to normal. Tears still streaked down her cheeks, that she quickly wiped away.

  She angrily began throwing fireballs and smaller balls of energy at the jester as Ashley fired her gun. Between all of us we were finally able to push the creepy jester near the corner of the room. He seemed to realize what was going on a moment too late.

  Ashley’s slow, methodical firing suddenly became a rapid staccato and Mara sent another broad beam of energy sweeping side to side through the space. The jester was initially winged by Ashley’s gunfire, but that caused him to stumble right into Mara’s beam of energy.

  By the time I could see again the jester looked like a pair of matchsticks burnt down to the end. His upper body was simply missing. We were not going to be checking that body for an essence or monster core.

  [Your party has killed: Jester [Boss] x 1]

  Behind the thrones the stained glass windows slowly began sliding apart, revealing a short passage of darkness leading out of the room.

  “Is everyone ok?” Oliver rushed around checking on everyone. A still giggling John tried to wave Oliver off, but he was having none of it. “You hold still mister, or I swear to god…”

  “Yes, sir,” John meekly bent down to Oliver’s reach.

  “Fucking brats,” Oliver muttered under his breath. He swiped his healing hand across John’s body. When he go to the spot that he’d been hit by the giggle beam, John locked up his muscles like he’d been hit with a bolt of electricity for a moment before slumping more heavily into Oliver’s arms. He finally stopped laughing. “Told you,” Oliver whispered.

  I turned to give the two of them a little space. I’m not always a voyeur. Ashley caught my eye. She smiled at me shyly before glancing away, a gentle blush on her cheeks.

  Mara slapped me on the back, “You know you could like talk to her.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I automatically defended myself.

  “Uh huh. Suuuure,” she drew out. “But fine, if you two want to keep dancing around this for another year, who am I to argue.”

  “We’re not dancing around anything,” I argued.

  “Babe. You can lie to yourself, but you can’t lie to me,” Mara said. “What are you even worried about?”

  I kicked the ground in front of me, “I don’t know. What if she doesn’t like me?”

  Mara stared at me slack jawed for a moment. Then she reached up and smacked me in the back of the head. “You’re an idiot. She likes you.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because it’s as obvious as how much you like her. Oh my god, you are such a useless lesbian.”

  “I’m not a lesbi–”

  “The stereotype still stands,” Mara interrupted. “You’re both idiots. When we get home we are having an intervention.”

  “Finally!” John said from behind me. “I have been telling Ashley the same thing for months now.”

  “Come on. Let’s just go see what’s in the next room,” I tried to change the subject.

  Mara gave me a stern look, “This isn’t over.” She turned to John and gestured him toward the entrance on the back wall.

  We followed John into the dark tunnel. It wasn’t very long and led to an open doorway. We piled into the room. Inside were a series of shelves on each side wall. Then on the far back wall there was an empty doorframe set into the wall. Inside the doorframe was the same black stone looking material as the obelisk we’d entered the dungeon through.

  [Congratulations! Your party is the first to clear the dungeon, rewards calculating…]

  [Rewards calculated based on dungeon contribution.]

  [Rewards boosted for being the first to clear this dungeon.]

  [User Grace rewards: One (1) essence of [Dark], One (1) minor health potion, Book: System Guide to Necromancy.]

  I looked at the others and everyone was a little wide eyed. Then Mara pointed at the shelves. Above each section now was carved one of our names. I looked around and all of our names were carved above a different section of shelving.

  I went over to my shelves and sure enough, there on the shelf was a cube of essence. This one seemed so dark that it absorbed and bent the light around it. Next to that was a small glass flask with a red, viscous liquid inside. Next to that there was a small booklet, not much larger than a pamphlet. Maybe a hundred pages of material total in the whole thing. On the black cover in golden ink was the title, System Guide to Necromancy.

  I quickly swiped all the rewards into my backpack. By the time I was done gawking and storing my items I looked around and the others were finishing up as well. I wondered what all everyone got. If it was really based on contribution I was especially curious about what John and Ashley had gotten. I tried not to wonder how much more I would have gotten if I hadn’t frozen in the clown room. I shook my head and followed the others as they marched through the portal at the end of the room. Back to the real world at last.