The room she and Ana had fallen into matched the theme of the rest of the dungeon. Polished tiles for the flss sculptures scattered around the edges, and a generally , elegant stru. Notably, there were no mirrors. Though the gss and tile were reflective enough they could serve as a makeshift one.

  Peering into the crystalline bust of some chiseled man, Natalie ied her new face, trag her fingers across the tours of her nose, jawline, and lips. Ana's body. She'd really traded with her. No matter how hard she tried, that wasn't something she could simply move on about. She'd been through several weird situations in the dungeon by now, but this oook the cake.

  To her side, Ana was iing her face, too. Though the dark-haired mage was stoid able to take things in stride to a degree Natalie nearly didn't uand, she was at least curious. So, not wholly ued. Just not affected like she should be.

  "Only o," Natalie said, tearing her eyes away from the refle. "Suppose we should get going. See what's in store."

  Ana nodded. "We don't have a healer. Nor Jordan to check for traps. So be careful."

  "I know." Natalie wasn't happy about that. She'd grown to take Liz franted—both her heals and the impressive strength boost. Jordan, too. At the same time, Natalie had traio spot traps herself, as did any delver, for situations like this. Being split up wasn't the most o, but hardly something that never happened.

  And that was assuming this challenge included traps and bat. Liz's challenge hadn't, though generalizing from a single event might not be smart.

  Lugging along her hammer—which felt much rger than usual, sina's body was noticeably shorter than her own—Natalie headed for the only door. She sed for traps, but found nothing. She g Ana, who had her crystal orb drawn and at the ready. Seeing her own fad red hair looking back made Natalie pause, then shake her head. She turned forward and opehe door.

  It led into a hallway. At the end, another door stood: this oh pink trim. Natalie repressed a groan. The color pink couldn't herald anything good—not sidering Natalie's css.

  There was also a pque of silver metal on the wall to the side of the door. Natalie couldn't make out the writing on it, not from this distahere was a bin made out of white marble to its left. Lastly, on the door's right, a steel dder led upward to a trap door on the ceiling. She eyed it warily. A?

  Making sure to s again for traps or threats, Natalie and Ana approached. Arriving, she peeked into the marble bin. It was empty, and rge enough to fit both of them easily if they climbed inside. Natalie doubted it was some random piece of decoration, so she read the silver pque, . Ana stepped closer to also take a look.

  It read:

  'Armor, clothing, and ables not permitted past this point. Pto the tainer. Items will be returned after exiting the challenge.'

  "At least it's not being cryptiatalie said dryly. Liz's challenge room had also included instrus.

  "The dder's a," Ana ented. "There's another pque. Look."

  Natalie did. Indeed, in a smaller silver pte to the left of the dder, a few words were inscribed.

  'Exit. Forfeit future rewards.'

  Like Liz's challe seemed whether she and Ana wao pursue the challenge was eheir own choice. That made se just because of Liz's pret, but because Ana has been practically pushed into the mirror by the dungeon. Dangerous traps were avoidable, and there wasn't any way Ana could have stopped her entry. Natalie could have, of course, by not jumping in after her, but the inal logic held.

  Still, how they were sistently being given a choice by the dungeo strao Natalie.

  Natalie looked up at the ceiling. "You know," she said. "For a duhat's killed millions of people, you sure care about sent."

  "I would think that's your influenot the dungeon," Ana said.

  Which was a fair point. Even so, that the dungeon gave them an option to i with these lewd challenges felt out of character. The dungeon was absolutely brutal—more than happy to kill, maim, torture, and worse. F them into lewd sarios wouldn't have been anything egregiously worse. Gross, yes, but pared to being murdered? ly on a different level from what the dungeon was already known for.

  heless, she was grateful for how it respoo her css. All of this would be much more disturbing if Natalie didn't get to decide whether or not to participate.

  "We going forward, then?" Natalie asked. "Or leaving?"

  Ana tilted her head. "Forward. As long as you don't have any problems with it."

  "We'll o get naked."

  Ana's brow furrowed. "Yes. That much is obvious."

  Natalie stopped herself from an exasperated sigh. "And you're okay with that?"

  "Seeing you naked? It's my body," Ana pointed out.

  "I mean, yes, but …" Natalie wasn't sure where she was going with that.

  "We simply avoid looking down at ourselves, if you want modesty." Ana waved her hand dismissively. "But I believe that's the least of our worries. Nakedness is the start of the challenge, not the finale. What was your and Elizabeth's event? The ey of it, I mean."

  "That's between us."

  "It was between you two," Ana disagreed. "Until the challenges spread to the rest of the team. Now it's a professional matter that we all deserve to be informed of."

  Natalie hesitated. It was a good point. "Liz asked me not to talk about it. So I won't."

  Ana frowned.

  "But I'm sure you make what inferences you o," Natalie said. "If we walk through that door, who knows what's oable?" She chewed her lip, gng at the dder. "But at the same time, it seems like we quit at any time."

  "Then there's not much of a risk." Ana shrugged, then looked down at herself. She fumbled around with all the straps, buckles, and es to her armor. "Warriear is so plicated," she ented. " you help me with it?"

  Help get Ana naked?

  Eve was Natalie's own body, the idea still made her feel faint. Especially when Ana remained pletely ued by everything. Natalie wasn't sure she for this.

  At least when it had been Liz, they'd both been blushing. Natalie might not be able to survive Ana.

  Just how far would this woman go in the name of 'professionalism'?

  winterwhereof