Jonah and I scrambled to our feet, though Jonah was faster than I was. He reached for his fallen trident, which he had dropped when I pulled him in, only for the Codex Wight to slash at his outstretched arm with its claws.

  Jonah cried out in pain and fell back onto the floor as the Codex Wight’s bony claws tore through his arm guards, making his arm bleed profusely. The Codex Wight raised its claws again, likely to finish off Jonah, but I quickly cast Minor Shield in front of him. The Codex Wight’s claws banged against the magical shield, shattering it. But the Codex Wight staggered backward from the recoil, hissing at the same time.

  “Aaron!” Nimbus phase-stepped next to me, glaring at me like I was an idiot. “Why did you bring one of those things in here with us? Are you trying to get us killed?”

  I grimaced at Nimbus. “It was an accident. It’s not supposed to be here. I was just trying to save—”

  The shrieking of the Codex Wight interrupted me, and I looked up in time to see it rushing toward me with its claws outstretched. I raised my stylus to try to cast a spell to defend myself and Nimbus, but I was too slow and I knew it. Even if I drew a spell from my glyph reservoir, I wouldn’t have enough time to actually cast it.

  Then, without warning, a Codex notification unfurled in my view:

  Warning! Due to your inexperience with altering glyph structures, the glyph you altered in the invisible seal has become destabilized!

  Then another notification replaced that one almost as quickly as it appeared:

  Thanks to your Codex Bond effect with Nimbus the cloud rabbit, the destabilized glyph in the invisible seal has auto-stabilized! You may now invite only one other person into the Verdant Seal who does not already have First Access privileges.

  Those notifications were surprising enough, but what happened afterward was even more surprising.

  Two identical circles of white light appeared—one directly underneath Jonah, the other directly underneath the lunging Codex Wight. The Codex Wight smashed into a tube-shaped barrier that appeared to confine itself to the circle of white light underneath it. The Codex Wight immediately got back to its feet and started scratching at the barrier with its claws, but its claws did nothing to the barrier.

  As for Jonah, he was still sitting down, his arms bleeding. But he looked just as confused as the Codex Wight did, gazing at the glowing white circle of light underneath him.

  My portable pinged and I got the following notification, which took the form of a snow-white scroll with glowing black script:

  Warning! There are two uninvited intruders in the Verdant Seal. You have indicated with your glyph adjustment that only one of these intruders is supposed to be an invited guest. Identify the invited guest within the next 30 seconds before the Verdant Seal automatically assigns the designation of invited guest to one of the two intruders based on the Verdant Seal’s arcane algorithm.

  Failure to properly identify your guest within the next 30 seconds will result in the uninvited intruder being forcibly expelled from the dungeon and placed on the list of forbidden dungeon explorers, preventing them from entering all known and unknown Node Dungeons in the future.

  Uh oh! I didn’t want Jonah to get expelled and forbidden from ever entering any dungeons ever again. Getting expelled sounded like it would throw him out of the dungeon and back into the chaos outside, and of course, I didn’t want him to lose the ability to access a new dungeon.

  But how the heck was I supposed to communicate that to the dungeon?

  Fortunately, it turned out I didn’t need to worry about that, because another notification, similar in style to the previous one, unfurled in my vision:

  Guest identified: Jonah Uri.

  Uninvited intruder identified: Codex Wight Number Six.

  The glowing white circle underneath Jonah vanished, presumably leaving Jonah free to get up and move around as he saw fit. He didn’t rise to his feet or move or anything, however, probably because his attention was drawn to the unfortunate fate of the Codex Wight that I had identified as the uninvited intruder.

  Its glowing white circle underneath it shone like a star, as if it were powering up some kind of spell. The Codex Wight, which seemed to understand that something bad was about to happen to it, resumed banging furiously on the invisible magical tube that restrained it, but it still couldn’t free itself. I probably could have accessed its glyph structure with my Inscriptionist Console and edited it to let it free, but there was no way in Sheol I would ever do that.

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  Then a pillar of white light consumed the Codex Wight within the tube. The Codex Wight had just enough time to let out one bone-rattling shriek before the column of light completely consumed it. For a second, it was just a column of white light in the middle of the entrance to the dungeon.

  One heartbeat later, the pillar vanished, leaving in its place a small, glowing blue ball of energy that I didn’t recognize. It reminded me of the exit orb from my Arcane Simulation, but much smaller—probably about the size of a walnut.

  Yet another notification unfurled in my vision after the appearance of the mysterious ball of energy:

  The Verdant Seal has successfully expelled the uninvited intruder, Codex Wight Number Six, from the dungeon. Because the uninvited intruder was a corrupted mob rather than a Codexer, the uninvited intruder was converted into a Word Core (+10 Words) that anyone can pick up.

  Now that all dungeon explorers with First Access privileges have entered and been approved by the Verdant Seal, you are free to organize a Codex Party and link your portable nodes with a dungeon Node. You also now have access to the Dungeon tab under your Codex sheet. Because this is a newly discovered dungeon, all earned rewards will be double their initial worth in future dungeon crawls.

  That was a lot of information to take in at once, but the gist of it seemed to be that the Codex Wight had been turned into a Word Core, which was not something I was familiar with.

  But if it was an item that gave out free Words to whoever picked it up …

  The sound of shrieking and screeching Codex Wights made me jump. I whipped my head toward the dungeon entrance, briefly afraid that somehow the other Codex Wights had managed to break into the dungeon, but that turned out to be an unfounded fear. The remaining Codex Wights that remained outside the dungeon were screeching and scratching and slashing at the invisible wall with their weapons and claws. They were practically trampling each other in their frenzied effort to get at us, but since none of them had First Access privileges—and I certainly was not going to give them any—their efforts were largely pointless.

  Still, I hesitated and took a step back when I saw them, even though I knew they couldn’t get in. They had to be some of the creepiest monsters I had ever seen, and I was grateful that the dungeon was protecting us from them, even if unintentionally.

  But then a golden sheen of light ripped through the Codex Wights gathered at the door, killing most of them and sending the handful of survivors scattering in other directions.

  Standing behind the smoking remains of the Codex Wights that he had killed was Sheminith. Even though it hadn’t been more than five minutes since we left him to fight Wolfbrand, he looked awful. His brilliant white robes were stained with blood and dirt, and his hair was singed at the tips and standing up in every direction. He had several cuts along his face and walked with a limp now. I didn’t see Wolfbrand or Barlow around, but I didn’t know if that meant that Sheminith had already defeated them or if he had just managed to get away from them for the time being.

  “Sheminith!” Jonah finally rose to his feet and rushed over to the dungeon entrance. Ruth, Nimbus, and I followed him, stopping at the invisible wall separating us from the outside. Jonah put his hands on the invisible wall. “Sheminith, can you hear me? Are you okay? Where is Wolfbrand?”

  Sheminith smiled weakly at us. “I managed to temporarily distract Wolfbrand with a spell, but that doesn’t matter right now. What matters is that I can’t follow you into this new dungeon because I don’t have First Access privileges.”

  Jonah jerked his head over his shoulder at me with a strong glare. “This kid, Aaron—he can let you in somehow, like how he let me inside. You don’t have to be out there with Wolfbrand.”

  Sheminith shook his head and pointed up at the top of the door. “Unfortunately, even if Aaron managed to let me inside, there would be no time. The countdown has already started.”

  We looked up at what Sheminith was pointing at, which was when we saw a countdown timer hovering at the top of the doorway. It was shaped like a clock, showing that there was less than 30 seconds left before something happened, though I didn’t know what.

  Dungeon lockdown countdown timer activated!

  Now that the Verdant Seal has confirmed that all approved dungeon explorers with First Access privileges are present inside the dungeon, dungeon lockdown protocols have begun. In less than 30 seconds, the physical door of the dungeon will close shut and prevent anyone else from accessing the dungeon from the outside until the current dungeon explorers complete the dungeon. The dungeon entrance shall remain locked down for at least a week or until the dungeon explorers complete the first floor of the dungeon, whichever comes first.

  Warning! All communications outside of the dungeon will be blocked. All communications within the dungeon, such as among members of the same Codex Party, will be allowed.

  “We’re going to be trapped in here for a week?” said Nimbus, his ears shooting straight up in alarm. “But there aren’t even any bananas in here! This has to be a joke.”

  I wished I could say the same thing, but the external wooden door of the dungeon was already starting to move on its hinges. It was slow and subtle, but it was definitely moving and would certainly close down the dungeon within the next 30 seconds or so.

  Jonah slammed his fists against the invisible barrier in frustration. “No! This wasn’t supposed to happen. We need your help, Sheminith. We can’t do this on our own.”

  Sheminith put one hand on the invisible barrier with an apologetic smile on his face. “I’m sorry that things worked out this way, but on the plus side, this isn’t your first time in a dungeon. Think of it as a challenge to prove that you don’t need me or anyone else to keep you safe in a dungeon.”

  That seemed to calm Jonah down somewhat, because he lowered his hands from the barrier and nodded, though it was a shaky nod. “Yeah, I guess that’s a good point. And once we complete the dungeon, then we’ll just meet up with you again. Might take a week, but I’m sure you can hang around the dungeon for a week or so.”

  Sheminith’s smile became even sadder and more apologetic. “The optimism of youth … I will really miss it.”

  Wolfbrand’s hook punched through his chest.

  Sheminith let out a scream of pain before slumping, still attached to Wolfbrand’s hook hand—and letting us see Wolfbrand himself standing behind Sheminith, grinning like a maniac, along with Barlow the Forest Bear and his small army of Codex Wights.

  Then the timer hit zero, there was a buzz from somewhere within the dungeon, and the wooden door slammed shut with a certain finality.

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