“Holy crap, we did it!”

  Jessica was the first to break the silence that stunned everybody with the boss’ death. She pumped her fist into the air even as her feet left the ground in an excited jump.

  “Did you see? Did you see?”

  Adrenaline was doing funny things to her brain, but she didn’t care. They entered a dungeon, attacked a boss, and lived.

  Statistically, that put them in the top 20 percent of adventurers when it came to their first dungeon.

  Never mind the fact that they were much higher level than the standard “first dungeon delver” and had worked together as a team for years before trying their hand at it. They still went in and came out on top. And that was without a healer and dragging along a non-combatant!

  “Drink. Now.”

  Jessica snapped her head to Y’cennia, rarely hearing her raise her voice in such a stern way, but the strangeness was entirely forgotten as she saw the figure slumped down onto the ground next to her. Alastair was in bad shape, clearly much worse than his ever-steady voice allowed them to believe, and Jessica found the wind taken out of her sails. She crept closer to her dear friend to assess the damage.

  Alastair was pale, far too pale, and his face was drenched in sweat. The hand clenching his shield seemed locked in a vice grip. He’d dropped his hammer in order to run his free hand over his cut-open and torn-up side.

  His normally pristine white tabard denoting the Holy Order of Light was stained red with his own blood. Jessica could see it spreading saturated circles in real time.

  Y’cennia had his head tilted back and was forcing a bright red bottle of liquid down his throat. Unlike their tiny, thumb-sized vials of [Minor Health Potions], the one she used was much larger. A [Lesser Health Potion], at the very least. Jessica couldn’t help her surprise; she didn’t know the catkin had learned that yet. But with all the effort she’d been putting in the last few days, she shouldn’t have been. She’d busted more tail in the last 48 hours than the entire group did in a normal week of hunting and questing. Y’cennia remained squatted in front of Alastair’s slumped form until every last drop disappeared down his throat.

  “Gahh,” Alastair croaked and groaned, shaking his head left and right while wincing. Suddenly, Jessica was rethinking asking Y’cennia if she had any extra of those larger potions to hand out.

  “Good,” the [Alchemist] nodded and stood. “Wait two minutes and take another. If your health hasn’t filled completely, or if that wound is still bleeding and hasn’t scabbed over, wait another two and take a third. We have plenty, and we’re going to wait here until you can stand without the shakes.”

  With Alastair sufficiently cowed under Y’cennia’s surprisingly stern glare, Jessica and Ellesea turned to loot the boss. Sometimes it was easy to forget, between the reality of danger and death, that there existed a reason for people to take leave of their senses and delve into dungeons.

  Human greed, no matter the race, was a powerful thing.

  Ellesea poked the fallen dungeon boss with the end of her staff, standing as far away as she possibly could while still having enough leverage to nudge the body. At the touch, the body shimmered slightly as whatever power governed dungeons, equal to the system that flowed through every living being, decided what was worthy to bestow upon them. It was a whole school of study, delving into what made dungeons tick and recording their patterns and consistencies, but those heady matters were far beyond [Sunrise] right now.

  A small treasure chest appeared and the lid flipped open of its own accord. Instinctively, Jessica leaned forward and pulled out…a pair of shoes. Sandals, really, with two large, blocky-looking soles and thick, coarse straps. The kind one imagined was worn by those from the far east while they lounged around their low tables and drank fine tea from delicate porcelain cups.

  The whole team, Alastair and Y’cennia included, stared at the shoes with a mix of heavily conflicting emotion. While their purpose for diving into the dungeon was multi-fold, it was easy to lose sight of all the other benefits and boil the moment down to “this is what our efforts were worth.” Something that none of them could use, as if they wanted to make use of the magical enhancements the “green” gear had, they needed a martial class. Specifically, a [Monk] or a [Pugilist], which none of them were.

  It was hard to look at that and not think, “This was a waste of time.”

  And the frustrating thing, which in the grand scheme of things didn’t matter a single bit, was that the boss was barefoot. It wasn’t like the shoes came from it either.

  Enough time had passed for Alastair to drink another potion, which Y’cennia monitored closely once again, and they began to go over what they’d learned.

  Which was a lot.

  Fighting while protecting a non-combatant was an entirely different beast that none of them were used to, and even if nothing outright targeted Y’cennia, it was a constant worry at the front of their minds. It wouldn’t be overly difficult, but they needed to change up their positioning and awareness. Fighting elites, too, was different than expected. It was one thing to know that an enemy was far stronger than it appeared and another to experience it taking solid chunks out of one’s flesh and health pool in a single hit firsthand. Y’cennia and Ellesea rigged up a crude bandolier to go around Alastair’s chest, holding 4 potions. It would still be awkward to grab and drink them in the middle of a fight, and there was just as good a chance for them to get smashed and destroyed as there was for him to fumble them, but it brought the possibility for him to use one in the middle of a fight from zero percent to…something slightly higher. The good news was they had more than enough potions to last them the entire dungeon, even if dozens got destroyed.

  Fifteen minutes after the boss was killed, the group was ready to go once more, and just as Y’cennia had said, she judged their readiness by how much Alastair’s legs shook when he stood back up. He was both firm and stable, so they made their way back to the main sewer intersection and continued onward.

  After passing two more clearly pointless side paths with crumbling walls and piles of rubble, [Sunrise] came across another pack of roving enemies. Unlike the first set of bats, the group was prepared, and through careful execution of basic planning, they managed to take down four [Sewer Rats] with practically no damage.

  Alastair had Jessica use her [Hunter’s Mark] on one to designate a priority target, and everyone waited for Ellesea to cast her initial spell while they were still not engaged to negate the long cast time. The first [Arcane Blast] tore into the rat, causing the pack to shift instantly into an aggressive sprint toward the [Mage], but Alastair was ready with a taunt to demand their attention. Jessica’s bow had not been idle either. By the time the rats lunged at Alastair, the first was long since dead and the second was joining it. Fending off two rats they saw coming was much easier than getting surprised by four bats. They made quick work of their enemies.

  They still paused to rest and top up any missing health with potions since they had both time and stock, and in this way, they continued. Three patrols were encountered in the thirty minutes since they killed the boss, and they stumbled across another specially marked tunnel on their map.

  “Another boss?” Y’cennia asked, peering into the gloom to their right but unable to see more than a few yards.

  “Bosses,” Jessica said grimly. “Four.”

  “Supposedly, they’re supposed to be some sort of mutated turtles,” Ellesea grimaced as she peered around Alastair’s elbow to stare at the notes. “Warped and twisted into some gruesome state by foul energies.”

  “Eww,” Y’cennia frowned. “And four? We barely handled one huge rat. How are we going to deal with four mutated turtles? That might be a bit beyond us.”

  “We might not have to,” Alastair sighed as he handed his notes to whoever wanted them. Jessica took them, mostly to have something to do with her hands that wasn’t reaching back to feel the ever-dwindling supply of arrows in her quiver. She had more in her inventory, but after the first several fights, she felt she hadn’t brought nearly enough. She was developing a nervous tic, checking how many she had immediately on hand, and she didn’t like it.

  “Explain?” Y’cennia asked.

  “Apparently, this boss, these bosses, whatever you want to call this group, is optional. The notes from the guild say they won’t attack you unless you approach them, and even when you do, sometimes they seem friendly and sometimes they attack on sight.”

  “Any idea what makes them change their mind?” Jessica asked, scanning the papers.

  “Notes don’t say,” Alastair frowned. “If anybody knew, it was probably long ago. The guild barely had any records of this place, and honestly, I’m not sure how much I trust them.”

  “Do we trust them enough to ignore four potentially powerful monsters behind our backs?” Jessica asked. “Up until now, we’ve always had a safe retreat.”

  “I don’t know,” Alastair said with a frustrated sigh. He was finding their first foray into a dungeon much more stressful than he had imagined. “Again, let’s put it to vote. Do we risk fighting four unknown bosses, all at the same time, for whatever riches and glory they might give, or do we pass, taking the immediately safer route but leaving the seeds of doubt?”

  “Pass,” Ellesea and Y’cennia instantly stated with no hesitation. Alastair glanced at Jessica and she nodded.

  “Pass.”

  “Pass.”

  Universal.

  The group backed cautiously away from the tunnel fork and returned to the main sewer branch. They walked for another 30 minutes, maintaining a slow and cautious speed in case anything jumped out at them.

  Ellesea was the first to request another break, so they settled behind a pile of stone, which once upon a time might have been a guardrail to keep maintenance workers from falling into the inky waters below. If this place really existed in the past, as dungeons were said to have done.

  They were memories, some said, that the world wanted civilization to never forget. Of course, others only saw dungeons for the loot or experience they could gain, but the history they contained and the stories they told were undeniable. Jessica took a long, measured drink from her waterskin as she wondered if this place was an extension of ancient Sickledrop when it was a much younger settlement.

  When they were watered, with a small hunk of bread and a tiny bit of cheese inside of them, they stood up to continue. Once more, they walked in silence, doing their best to not let the eerie atmosphere of an abandoned sewer wear down their nerves, but nobody wanted to make a loud noise and startle potentially hidden monsters. They’d covered what felt like several miles when the sewer’s water line made an abrupt turn to the right, but the path continued forward.

  Ahead of them the cobblestone ended abruptly at a gigantic arch leading into a massive open cavern. The arch stretched nearly twenty feet in the air, and Jessica could see the gleaming tips of iron portcullis spikes. Unlike nearly everything else they’d seen so far, those spikes were not rusty or worn down.

  “Careful,” she reached forward and tapped Alastair on the shoulder. “Could be a trap.”

  Alastair stopped in his tracks and followed Jessica’s finger. He shook his head.

  “Could be, but I don’t think so,” he countered with a chuckle. “This is an arena. The next boss is in there. I’d wager that gate slams down the moment we all go in. So let’s make our plan out here.”

  “What do we know?” Y’cennia asked. Jessica glanced at their catkin. She’d shown a surprising amount of resilience so far and Jessica was pleased. The few escort requests the group had taken in the past painted a picture of civilians that she found overwhelmingly accurate: they were not cut out for fighting and panicked at the first sign of danger. So far, Y’cennia had not gotten in anybody’s way or run herself into trouble, which was the greatest contribution she could give to them. So Jessica welcomed her curiosity and wondered if they needed to start looking into a subclass an [Alchemist] might take to help them survive alongside more…active adventurers.

  “It’s a giant squid,” Ellesea said with a huge frown. “What’s with this place? Giant rats, giant turtles, giant squid…?”

  “Supposedly there’s undead later,” Jessica said with a smirk, watching the smaller girl twitch. “Take your pick.”

  “If they’re offering blue staves, I don’t care what they are,” Ellesea grumbled to herself, twisting her own staff this way and that.

  “I hear you,” Jessica sighed. “The guild didn’t have any info on what drops here. You’re lucky Melia showed you that staff during the carriage ride; the rest of us don’t even know if this whole delve will be worth anything.”

  “I’d argue that the experience alone is worth it,” Alastair said. “I’m halfway to 289. That’s a whole level and a half since we started. And this is…about a third of the way, maybe? The notes break the dungeon into three sections, though I have no idea if those sections are equal.”

  “That’s if we live long enough to see the end,” Jessica countered, sobering the party.

  “And that is what’s killing us next?” Y’cennia asked.

  The catkin had crept up to the very edge of the arch where the arena began without crossing the invisible barrier. Inside was, indeed, a huge cavern, lit by the same sputtering torches maintained by the dungeon. Beige and grey limestone walls dripped with the misting backspray of an overflowing waterfall, which both came and drained…somewhere. Perhaps back into the sewer? No drain was apparent.

  What was apparent were eight gigantic and very ominous-looking gaping holes in the walls, black as night, into which no light could penetrate, and one massive pot which could have easily held an entire castle’s worth of wine.

  Or the head of one gigantic squid.

  Two huge yellow eyes the size of boulders sat embedded in a small white hill, and it took Jessica several moments to realize it wasn’t a piece of discarded decoration, but a living, breathing creature. Her heart plummeted, but her courage held firm.

  “We’re supposed to fight that?” she asked incredulously. The boss was “hiding” at the back of the arena, right next to the waterfall. If the arena itself was 50 feet in diameter, the head of the squid had to be at least 15 to 20 feet tall. Now that she knew it was there, she saw it easily took up a quarter of the arena.

  “Yeah,” Alastair sounded much calmer than she felt. He gave his notes one more look over before shaking his head and putting them away.

  “How?” she demanded.

  “Very carefully,” Al sighed. When Jessica gave him a look demanding more information, he shrugged. “Look, you know as much as I do. The notes are very vague. ‘Kill it before you die.’ I kid you not, that’s what they say. The only other helpful information is a note that says to avoid the arms. Apparently the boss is immobile. Either it’s stuck in that pot, or it simply refuses to move, so we just need to worry about getting crushed by its tentacles.”

  “I don’t want to die,” Y’cennia blurted before she could stop herself. Alastair, Jessica, and Ellesea all turned slowly to stare at her. She blushed under their sudden scrutiny.

  “Nobody does,” Jessica said in a surprisingly soft tone, patting her hand gently.

  “Do we really need to do this?” the catkin asked, wringing her hands as her tail flicked back and forth behind her. Her ears were pressed flat against her head and it was clear she was very uncomfortable.

  “If we want to go any further forward, we do,” Alastair said. His voice was kind but determined. “And for the three of us,” he pointed his thumb at Jessica and Ellesea, “We need to. We’re adventurers. This is what we signed up to do. Not as glamorous as the stories make it out to be, is it?” he asked with a wry smile.

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  “You can go back if you want,” Ellesea said. She must’ve realised how condescending that sounded, because she quickly added, “We’ll escort you back to the entrance. Don’t worry, you don’t have to walk alone.”

  “But you won’t leave with me?” she almost pleaded.

  “Committed,” Jessica grinned, but she knew the catkin could tell she was putting on a brave face. Y’cennia stared at them all for a good solid minute before taking a deep breath.

  “Fine,” she said with conviction. “I’m coming with you.”

  “You could always wait out here as we go in,” Alastair pointed out. “If this thing is a gate like we think it is, you might be safe on the other side once the bars go down. That way, if we…aren’t successful, you can still make a run for the entrance.”

  “No,” she instantly shook her head. “I’m part of the team.”

  “Part of the team,” Alastair gave her a smile, putting one hand on her shoulder while the other played with the potions strapped across his chest. “A valuable part, too.”

  He closed his eyes and calmed his nerves.

  “Enough stalling. Let’s do this.”

  ?

  As one, [Sunrise] made their way into the arena. Alastair, with his hammer ready and shield up, led the way. Jessica, to his left, had an arrow nocked, and her eyes darted around the room. Ellesea was to his right and held her staff high, already formulating arcane runes. Y’cennia was several feet directly behind him, with the express instructions to find the safest place she could as soon as the fighting started, because as much as everybody wished it was otherwise, nobody had any capacity to spare to watch over her.

  As soon as Alastair reached halfway between the entrance and the waterfall, the giant squid made itself known with a squelching roar that shouldn’t have been possible for seafaring life.

  At the same time, the portcullis slammed down instantly behind them. No buildup, no warning; once more they found themselves facing down a raging beast.

  ?

  [Octus the Engorged]

  Elite

  Level 203

  ?

  The highest level monster they’d seen so far. The normal enemies, the elites, punched far above their weight, and the previous boss was devastatingly strong. And the rat had been 10 levels lower than the giant squid. Alastair didn’t want to know how strong this thing was going to be. Nor did he want to take a hit from one of those tree-trunk-sized tentacles worming their way out from the holes in the wall.

  “Look alive!” he yelled, casting a quick prayer for Y’cennia’s safety, as that was all he could do for her now.

  “I see them!” Jessica bantered, loosing two arrows in quick succession into the grasping tentacle closest to her. She skipped to the side, rapidly dodging the heavy limb as it crashed down into the ground where she had been standing moments before, sending an eruption of water jetting into the air. The whole arena was filled with several inches of standing water, barely enough to soak their shoes, but more than enough to severely hamper movement.

  “Watch your feet!” she called back. She was much more nimble than the others and she hoped they could dodge those attacks. Alastair might be able to deflect one or two tentacle slams with his shield, but if one caught her or Ellesea…they’d be goners.

  Jessica pumped her legs up and down like they were engulfed in molasses, swirling behind a stalagmite just as a tentacle tried sweeping out her feet. The arena was mostly open, but she could see several places to hide in briefly as the squid repositioned to attack. Those holes in the walls were everywhere, now that she was looking, and the squid could probably stick a limb through one to reach her no matter where she was inside the room. She couldn’t see Y’cennia, but it looked like Ellesea made it safely on top of a small rock and steadied herself enough to start casting. Alastair was standing directly in front of the monster’s line of sight, so their [Mage] could probably get several casts off before repositioning.

  Her senses blared in alarm and Jessica ducked, splinters of stone raining down on her head as she dove away from her previous cover. A glance back showed her a thick white limb pulverizing solid stone. She’d stayed still too long. She readied her bow and put several skills' worth of arrows into it for her troubles.

  “Brace!” a high-pitched voice yelled. Jessica didn’t look back. She secured her bow and pumped her legs as hard as they could go. Her lungs burned and her legs were on fire as she dove to the nearest wall, rolling into the water to soak herself as much as possible.

  “Brace” was Ellesea’s shorthand for “I’m casting something big, get out of my way.” Their [Mage] was an arcane specialist, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t practiced in other elemental spells. Jessica didn’t think Ellesea would try calling down a [Flamestrike] in the middle of a half flooded cavern, but she wasn’t taking any chances of getting scorched by a rogue flame.

  Jessica righted herself just in time to see a gigantic purple orb filled with minuscule, sparkling stars and swirling nebulae, like some faraway galaxy plucked from the heavens, grow to the size of a carriage and slowly lumber inevitably toward the boss. The squid seemed to sense the growing danger, as its eyes widened fractionally and it let out a deafening screech. The ball impacted with its snapping beak and pressed inward, warping around the creature as it tried to continue its path. She saw Ellesea hop down from her perch and hide behind the boulder as Alastair sprinted towards the far wall.

  Then the spell detonated.

  Winds rushed and howled as a singularity seemed to open, newfound gravity sucking everything toward it like a black hole. Water all around Jessica lifted and floated in waves like an ebbing tide, and the tentacles that had been fingering toward her now bent backward as they fought against an invisible pull. Arcane electricity arced from the center of the mass, lashing into several limbs, and the closest one, which was trying to get the spell away from the boss’ face, was sheared in two. A screech of agony and pure hatred rent the air, making Jessica grit her teeth.

  She wanted nothing more than to sit slumped against the wall and rest her aching body, but she knew doing so was a death sentence. As impressive and breathtaking as Ellesea’s attack had been, this was a boss of a dungeon.

  Indeed, Alastair was already rushing back into the center of the room, drawing the beast’s attention and ire away from everybody else, while Ellesea herself was scrambling to find a new perch. For all their wrath, the boss was still at half health. Two of the eight tentacles were gone, one sheared clean off by Ellesea’s attack and the other pulverized to a pulp by Alastair’s hammer.

  Jessica’s arrows were effective, as evidenced by how the water around the room was slowly growing darker with the monster’s blood, but she was spreading herself thin. While most of her shots landed, very few were against the same mark, and not always in the same place. She could, of course, hit a moving target, but this was no leisurely day out at the range. She grit her teeth and let out arrow after arrow, resigned to the fact that, in this fight at least, her contributions were not showy. They were there, and they were felt, especially as the beast reached a quarter health but had not lost any more limbs.

  Suddenly, the creature screeched again and all remaining tentacles withdrew. Jessica had barely a moment to react, when against any law of physics or nature, all six tentacles shot out of holes from the right side of the arena, creating a wall. With horrifying force, they slammed down into the ground, causing the whole room to shake. Ellesea was far enough away to dodge fully, but Alastair was caught by the blow and thrown into a pillar of stone, shattering it.

  “Al!” Jessica shouted, but knew there was nothing she could do. She saw the tentacles retreating and heard a noise behind her and guessed the attack was about to repeat on her side, so she sprinted away even though it felt like her lungs were going to burst. She felt the rush of air lift her off her feet as the ground erupted around her heels. She skipped up and flew forward several feet, barely avoiding getting the wind knocked out of her as she impacted another wall. She turned, let out several more arrows, and saw Alastair shakily drag himself away from a pile of stone.

  “Shit!” Jessica yelled, as if doing so helped. It did not, but she put more arrows, more skills, into the beast as she reached the limits of her stamina and mana. She was scraping the bottom of the barrel, really grasping at the dregs, when the thing let out a long, low whine. And much like the giant rat before it, the giant squid keeled over and died.

  ?

  Ellesea struggled to raise herself out of the murky water, so Jessica used the last ounces of her willpower to heave herself off the ground to grab the smaller girl under the armpits so she didn’t drown herself in dead boss-fluid.

  “We…alive?” Ellesea wheezed. It was probably meant to be a joke, but Jessica knew it was half-hearted.

  “I’ll tell you when I find out,” Jessica muttered. As soon as she was sure Ellesea wasn’t about to drown, she took stock of their surroundings.

  One dead boss, one half-dead [Paladin] slumped against the stump of a broken stalagmite. That was worrying. He’d taken Y’cennia’s previous scolding to heart and was slowly imbibing healing potions to keep himself stable, but it was slow going as he waited to make sure not to get potion sickness.

  Speaking of Y’cennia, the catkin was nowhere to be seen.

  “Where’s Cennie?” Jessica asked sharply.

  Al looked up, alarmed. Obviously, he hadn’t thought to check on their weakest member, but judging from the state he was in, it was a reasonable oversight.

  “Don’t you move,” Jessica pointed a threatening finger at him as he tried to stand, wincing as he barely shifted. A quick jog around the perimeter revealed Y’cennia slumped against the wall, hidden by some broken debris. Jessica blanched and hurried to her side.

  “That…was…exciting…wasn’t it?” Y’cennia tried joking through labored breaths, but her attempt to lighten the mood fell flat. Her face was incredibly pale and she’d lost a lot of blood; her hands were covering the ruined remains of her leather apron, keeping her side squeezed tight as blood dribbled through the gaps in her fingers.

  “What are you doing, you silly girl?” Jessica hissed. She leaned forward with a sense of urgency but had no idea how to help, so her fingers hovered uselessly above the wound. “Why haven’t you taken a potion yet? You’re dying!”

  Y’cennia tried shaking her head but stopped instantly. She spat out a fleck of blood.

  “Can’t. Need to…remove the…shards first. Else. Regrow inside.”

  Understanding clicked and Jessica felt a second jolt of shock. Around the edges of the wound on Y’cennia’s side, she could see jagged fragments of rock sticking out of her abdomen. While it wasn’t the brunt of an explosion itself, she must’ve been hit by shrapnel. Jessica’s mouth formed a tight line. The catkin had more guts than half the initiates she’d seen fail out of the guild. Basic training taught them to clean internal wounds first for their own safety, lest they heal improperly and then require intensive surgery later to reopen the wound, or worse, leave them crippled or impaired for life.

  Had she taken potions instantly, the wound would have closed around those shards of rock and they’d wreak havoc on her insides. Internal bleeding was a dangerous thing.

  “Okay, I can help with this,” Jessica said. She calmed her nerves and steadied her hands. She was disciplined, and they wouldn’t move if she didn’t let them. “Just make sure you don’t die while I take them out.”

  Y’cennia gave a weak chuckle in response. As soon as she removed her hands, the blood started flowing again, and they needed to work quickly. As soon as she drank a healing potion, the wound would start to close, but she needed to take one instantly so she didn’t pass out or pass on. Jessica needed to act fast and decisively; hesitation would be catastrophic.

  Y’cennia hissed as she chugged down the first potion, wincing as it burned her throat. She was worse off than she let on, but no longer in danger of blacking out. Jessica’s nimble fingers worked rapidly, digging into her soft insides even as they fought against her to repair themselves, but in a matter of moments, they had the largest of the shards out.

  “There,” Jessica said, steadying Y’cennia as she swayed. “We got them. You’re lucky there were no tiny splinters, only larger chunks. It’s not pretty but there shouldn’t be anything left inside you. We’ll get you checked out by a healer as soon as we get out.”

  “Thanks, Jess,” Y'cennia smiled weakly, but warmly.

  “How’s your first taste of combat?”

  The girls looked up to see Ellesea and Alastair looming behind them several feet away. They both looked worse for wear. Ellesea was mostly untouched but looked absolutely exhausted, while Alastair’s armor was starting to get destroyed. Half of his left pant leg had been ripped away, revealing his bare leg, and part of the skin around his ribs was exposed after their first fight.

  “I’ll admit I’m starting to understand it,” Y’cennia replied, “But I don’t think I’ll ever warm to this. How do you all do it?”

  “I’m not sure myself,” Alastair shook his head. “This dungeon’s already taught us so much. I had no idea it would be this different from fighting normal monsters. I understood they’d be stronger, but this…it’s a whole other level.”

  Jessica nodded and turned toward Ellesea. The smaller girl was holding two large sticks, one was her normal staff and the other clearly wasn’t a caster weapon. Noticing her gaze, Ellesea spoke up.

  “Boss drop,” she said simply, holding out her hand. “I looted it before it could despawn. We don’t have anybody with harvesting skills, so I know it wasn’t going to stick around long.”

  Indeed, Jessica looked around and all traces of the giant squid had vanished. The cut and mutilated tentacles, the gigantic head sticking out of the massive pot…vanished. As if it had never been there in the first place. Dungeons remained clear for some time after their monsters got defeated, but they’d respawn eventually. They needed to move, sooner rather than later. Jessica turned her focus to the weapon.

  “A…pike?” she asked quizzically. If so, it was a bizarre model she’d never seen before. It had a classic spearhead, but the shaft was barbed with several wicked-looking, backwards hooks. Ellesea shook her head.

  “A harpoon. [Whalebane].”

  Jessica took a look.

  ?

  [Whalebane]

  Level: 199

  Rarity: Rare

  Soulbound: Attuning ([Sunrise] party, 1 hour 59 minutes remaining)

  Agility: 79

  Stamina: 33

  ?

  The one that didn’t get away.

  ?

  She let out a low whistle. A blue. They’d found an honest-to-goddess rare item. And a soulbound one at that. Once bound, only the attuned would receive those stat bonuses when wielding it, and it was locked to only party members who participated in the kill until it finalized on one of them. It was a shame, really, because they wouldn’t be able to sell it to anybody else to use it. An enchanter would take it, for good coin, too, but they’d have been able to get at least a hundred gold, possibly more, if they found a proper buyer.

  “Can you use it?” Ellesea asked. “You use Agility, right?”

  Jessica took it and stared at the weapon for a few moments longer before shaking her head.

  “The stats would be nice, but it’s two-handed. I couldn’t use it with my bow, so the most it would do would be to take up space on my back and maybe get in the way. But those stats….”

  She stared longingly at it before Ellesea made her put it away before she changed her mind and made a dumb decision. She only had so much space to strap things to her body and the only way she could carry that thing was if she sacrificed her bow strap, which would be suicidal. Even if those stats would give her a significant damage boost, it wasn’t worth it. Not yet, anyway.

  ?

  The group only allowed themselves a five-minute break before forcing themselves to move on. With the boss defeated, the waterfall slowed to a trickle, like somebody had shut it off, revealing a gloomy cave behind it. They made their way forward for the better part of an hour, moving painfully slowly in case of an ambush, but it was better to take time instead of risking a sudden attack.

  Eventually, they came across a small nook with a well placed torch that offered a modicum of coverage in the odd-shaped alcove where they could rest. Once they crowded inside the nook, they were hidden from the main path, and there was a smaller indent further in where they could relieve themselves with some small privacy.

  They set a rotation of guards, working in pairs where two kept watch and two slept. It was a quick rest, only half an hour for each pair, and then another thirty minutes while they ate a meager meal. Field rations were bland, tasteless things, but they were filling and dense with calories to keep them moving. Above all, they took up very little space, and hopefully the group would only need to suffer through one or two disgusting meals…hopefully. After four hours, they were halfway through the dungeon and they had no idea how much longer it would take.

  Thankfully, they had discovered a method that worked for them when fighting roaming patrols. Their range would pull a pack, putting as much damage out to a single target before it could get close, and hopefully, one or two monsters would be dead or seriously wounded before they got to Al, who was holding up, but visibly strained. The fact that his armor was half broken was a bad sign for any prolonged fight.

  After their brief rest, they set out once again through the dark cave. The sewer background was left behind completely; now they were surrounded entirely by dank cave walls. It reminded them somewhat of a mine, with occasional wooden braces supporting the ceiling and walls, and alongside the flickering torches hung the occasional iron lantern.

  But there were no signs of humans ever digging this tunnel, no small details like the grooves of pick heads gouged into the walls. The floor was far too smooth for anything that was man-made without specialized architecture. Unless an entire grumble of dwarves planned and excavated this hole with the express purpose of showcasing their mastery over the earth.

  As the group moved forward, they discussed tactics. Where to stand, how to stand, and what to do to prevent any further occurrences like they had during the last boss fight. All things considered, they came away from both fights far better than they deserved. Walking into an unknown dungeon, unprepared, having never trained for dungeons before, without a full party and crucially lacking a real healer…they should probably be much worse off. Broken armor and slow movement were respectable trade-offs for lessons learned and knowledge gained, even if the loot so far was unusable. And most importantly, they were still alive.

  Eventually, they came across a tunnel like any other, but Jessica rushed forward to halt their progress.

  “Hold up,” she put a hand on Alastair’s shoulder. “My senses are tingling. Something about this place is off. Let me check for traps.”

  When a scout warned of traps, party leaders let them investigate. Smart ones, at least, ones who wanted to continue leading, and living, too. The three others didn’t move an inch further forward, but got out of the way as Jessica threw herself down on the ground and began crawling around. After ten minutes, in which she had slowly inched further away, she called back.

  “I was right,” she sighed as she stood. “Look up.”

  The group did as instructed…and blanched. Heavy boulders suspended by thick chains dangled overhead in the gloom, ready to fall at a moment’s notice. They’d been cleverly hidden in the ceiling, and they wouldn’t have seen them unless they were specifically staring above their heads.

  “Good to know,” Alastair nodded. “Learn to look up. Got it.”

  “So how do we cross?” Y’cennia asked. She didn’t fancy setting off a trap that dropped those. The hallway was narrow and those boulders were not. If one fell, there wasn’t any room to dodge or get out of the way. No amount of healing potions would cure somebody crushed by one of those.

  “There’s a thin wire,” Jessica sighed, crouching down and brushing some dirt around on the floor. Gingerly, she slipped her finger under a string as thin as spider silk and held it up gently, watching it grow taut but not triggering.

  “I can’t see how to disable it, but I know where it goes. It’ll be a slog, but I can lead everyone past.”

  Indeed it was. It took Jessica herself another five minutes to backtrack to her teammates, and fifteen each to carefully guide them across one at a time. Ellesea in particular took a full twenty minutes to ease across, as she started off very poorly by nearly tripping over the wire, making Jessica lunge at her and knocking them both back. She was shaken after that and moved extra carefully, but they made it safely.

  At the end of the corridor was another wide arch with a broad, high-vaulted ceiling. In the center of a room stood a pedestal with multiple levers and countless runes and markings littered the walls. Rails were bolted along the walls in a slow descending spiral, possibly some sort of ramp or groove for something to slide along.

  Directly across from them, on the opposite side from the entrance, was what looked like a closed exit door, also filled with countless runes.

  And in front of it stood the most bizarre thing they had seen in this confounding dungeon yet: a bleached-bone skeleton wearing a strange brown hat and jacket.

  Nobody dared move, but after several moments it became clear that the monster had no idea they were there. Alastair relaxed, but only slightly, as he rolled his shoulders and readied his shield.

  “Well, that’s a boss room if I’ve ever seen one.”

  LINK.