Chapter 3

Red Sands Desert, Contested Border Region.

Old World Ruins of "Angel Fall"

Allya looked calmly as her party leader pulled out his sword from the golem with a grunt.

"What the hell? A golem, here?"

She easily hid a smile as the rest of the party talked among one another, uneasy. These people...weren't the smartest. Still, they paid on time, didn't ask problematic questions, and they needed a specialist with her...skills.

Plus, their stupidity left them fairly easy to manipulate if necessary.

"Wait, are you feeling that?"

Everyone turned towards their elven ranger, Pyn Windwrath. Soft-spoken, beautiful (with an ample chest) but pale (as was virtually every wood elf), with long flowing chestnut hair tied into a ponytail. She was usually fairly quiet, and if she wasn't so tall (nearly 1m90, which was rather exceptional for a wood elf) she would just fade into the background most of the time. Right now her pointy ears were twitching slightly. One of the advantages that the wood elves had was their ability to sense magic, and even precisely locate the origins of sounds, that were somehow tied to their ears, not counting their sharpened hearing. This made them exceptional scouts and rangers, which was part of the reason the elf was a ranger, serving as a trap detector and an exceptional short to medium range sniper with her enchanted shortbow. From Allya's own research, there was a warrant for her arrest in the elven confederacy of Eleria (a mess of minor elven kingdoms that had gotten more or less together when the Eris empire had started snooping in the area and built one of their 'autonomous trading outposts', also known as a beachhead for a full colonization push. Eleria couldn't hope to push them back, but they'd made themselves large and powerful enough to simply not be worth the manpower and money to conquer), apparently for 'liberating' the contents of the central bank of her town, especially some of it's more...interesting equipment (oh dear, it included an enchanted shortbow and a high quality suit of light leather ranger gear, such a surprise), as well as a fair amount of mana gems.

"No....wait." Said the human mage.

Allya stopped a snicker just in time. She usually didn't have a hard time dissembling, but this party was almost hilariously cliché and incompetent. Their mage, named Oroski Sarvakh, was a pyromaniac, and if she didn't miss her guess, was currently wanted dead or alive in the Tark Hegemony for murder. With a bounty. Not a large enough one to justify turning him in (plus, Allya never betrayed a contract. Ah, the advantages of idiots that never realized the mana documents were ever so slightly flawed, and wouldn't actually force her to obey them. She still wouldn't backstab them, but having the option of stepping out of their suicidal idiocy if necessary was nice), but still enough to realize that he was either completely ruthless or extremely stupid. Probably both. He also had the quirk of being extremely bad at sensing magic, no matter it's type.

"What is it Oro?" Said the young human fighter.

That one, John? John something. She couldn't remember. It didn't matter, a village kid with a penchant towards gratuitous violence, he'd been showed the door to the village when he'd decided that the girl that had caught his eye would have to marry him if the other pretender...vanished. He'd failed quite spectacularly, but his family was well placed in the village, and had arranged a compromise. He'd 'volunteered' to become an adventurer, was given a set of basic fighter gear, then told that although he wasn't officially banished, no one would find his body if he ever came home. He was the new recruit, picked up at their last stop at the Mana Oasis of Erakis. Not the greatest of places, but it was surprisingly prosperous for being an isolated island of life in the middle of a wasteland. Not the least, she guessed, because it provided the only truly safe stop and friendly ground for caravans making the crossing for around 300 kilometers. In any case, the kid couldn't control his temper and had gotten into a fight with one of the deskies at the adventurer's guild, and his party, who were on a protection duty for an archeological study group, a bunch of students and teachers from the Eris empire, had promptly dumped him to avoid losing their contract (every adventurer worth their salt learns to NEVER piss off the boys and girls behind the guild's desk. They might not look like much but they could make your life hell if they wanted to. And some of them were serious badasses that just took the post as a favor to the guild master, and to keep a lid on things if people got rowdy). The boss needed an extra hand, preferably close quarters, cheap, and not very smart. Also known as: expendable meatshield.

"Who cares? This. This is one hell of a find." Said the leader.

That man, Arkor Noran...was actually the only one that could be dangerous to Allya. He was brutal, greedy beyond measure, completely ruthless, and had just the right amount of cunning to survive, but not enough to keep himself from being caught. She's stopped digging into his past after she'd lost count of the number of charges of murder, slavery, drug trafficking, pillage, piracy and robbery he was wanted for. He was wanted for pretty much every normal crime imaginable that made heaps of money and even in one case had a warrant on his head for attacking a gods damned Eris Imperial AirFleet gunship.

She was honestly amazed he was still part of the adventurer's guild. He must have done someone high up in the hierarchy one hell of a favor to be kept on the records. The guild wasn't bound by the laws of any country, and never revoked the adventurer card or medallion of an adventurer, even if they were wanted by the authorities (although guild authorities still had to turn them in if they tried to enter a guild hall in the nation they were wanted in), only revoking it if they had violated the guild's rules. That was the official line, in reality past a certain point, someone was simply considered too dangerous to keep affiliated with the guild (OR they had pissed off someone high enough in the Eris empire to seriously threaten getting the weirdly named but terrifyingly effective Autonomous Threats Removal Bureau, whose job was essentially to track down and execute powerful, rogue individuals. Or just someone a person powerful enough wanted killed, fast), at which point it was usually pretty easy to dig into their record and 'discover' something that regretfully brought the guild to expel them. Still, he was pretty rich, and didn't care what his party members had done as long as they followed orders, and most importantly he kept his word to his comrades. He understood that stacks of money, paying regularly, and not trying to backstab or blackmail his allies would land him solid help for the next score, which would make him even richer and more powerful.

And his eyes were glinting.

"Do you boys and girls have any idea what this is worth?"

Everyone except Allya shook their head. Arkor smiled at her slightly, and nodded towards her. The other members of the party turned towards her, slightly surprised. They thought she was secretive, and well, she was, but the reason she wasn't socializing with them was mostly because they weren't exactly the best and most reliable people in the world, and she quite frankly didn't want to know more about them than was strictly necessary. Especially Orokis. What she'd learned about what he did to his victim gave her the creeps.

She sighed, and answered.

"The short answer would be: a lot. The long one? Around a hundred thousand mana, in total, easy." She continue as the astonished expression of her party members were quickly replaced by greed. "The golem isn't worth that much, of course, although it's pretty good, I'd say around a thousand mana, if sold in bulk for it's components and metals, but much more, probably 3 to 5 times that, if you knew who to talk to. However, a golem here means another part of the ruins has been opened, and you all know what that means."

Everyone nodded. The God of Fire had decreed that no one should attempt to dig into and open the ruins of the Old Worlds, and his Custodians and Adjudicators ruthlessly eradicated anyone who violated his edict. However, it was specified that ruins opening on their own or through nature were free to be explored and pillaged, at the peril of the explorers.

"Well, of course it'd be suicide to explore the ruins ourselves." She gave a quick look at the leader, who simply nodded. There was no need to mention that some idiots might have opened the ruins themselves, but that they could claim ignorance if they didn't go check it for themselves. "But the information would be valuable...along with proof. The guild pays 10 000 mana to anyone that discovers ruins like that and can provide proof. But of course, nothing prevents us from having...detours before reporting in to the guild, and providing the information to...interested parties."

Said interested parties would be information brokers, scavenger groups, some corporations and maybe even a conglomerate. Oh, and probably the local noble, last, who would pay richly (and even more the more people were on their way to pillage the ruins) to know where it was, and tax whatever came out of the ruins. Or just kill everyone and take it for themselves, you never truly knew with those inbred snakes.

In any case, everyone was nodding, greed clear in their eyes. Less in that of the elf, but still present. Allya was fairly sure the elfy was slowly, every so slowly coming to regret her choices, and was seriously homesick. That didn't change her personality (yet), but maybe she was salvageable, later down the road.

She almost snickered. Look who's talking, she thought.

"But, it won't come to that anyway."

Everyone froze as she spoke. Even the leader.

"Excuse me?"

"Well, we could do that if the ruins had opened...and I hardly think they did. Or maybe they did, but that's secondary now."

"Why?" Asked the elf.

"Because we're in a dungeon. And that's worth 1 million, flat, from the guild alone."

The silence that greeted her announcement nearly made her facepalm. Even these idiots should be able to feel the influence of the dungeon. The concentration of ambient mana had jumped so high that their mana was increasing for the divines' sake! Heck, there was ambient mana, that alone should tell them that something was very wrong here! The wastelands were, well, wastelands, because there was no ambient mana whatshowever, and as such, nothing to sustain life. The only exception were the Mana Oasis (also called Mana Springs outside of the wastelands), where liquid mana, seeping from deep beneath the earth, formed a pond, or a lake. The...evaporation? Of the liquid mana allowed life to grow and prosper around the oasis. Of course, that was as long as the mana continued seeping up, or some idiot didn't take it all and pump it dry. But those were exceptions, scattered, and usually hard to find. A dungeon however....a dungeon produced a massive amount of ambient mana, and the amount of ambient mana when you entered it's influence multiplied, invariably reaching a level where people absorbed mana faster than they could synthesize it. And that was without even cultivating.

"How...How can you be su-" Said John, right before being stopped by Pyn, the elf.

"I can feel it now. She's right, we're regenerating mana, the ambient mana has gotten so dense..." She suddenly realized the obvious, looking at the golem in alarm. "It's a dungeon monster! We're inside the dungeon's influence! We have to be!"

A pretty astute deduction, at least for her. Well, Allya guessed it wasn't truly her fault, or the others'. None of them were truly experienced or professional adventurers, and guessing from their expressions of fear, none of them had been in a dungeon before.

The party leader, on the other hand...He seemed confident. And she saw something pass within his eyes, and he looked at Orokis, who looked back, and faintly nodded. There was something she wasn't aware here. That wasn't good. The only reason she'd accepted that job was because she had enough dirt on them to bury them if they tried anything, and they didn't seem to be hiding any surprises.

Arkor clapped his hands.

"Alright everyone. Looks like the gig's changed." He smiled. "The previous objective is now considered null and void. We have a new, far better one on our hands. Trira is right, the discovery of the dungeon is worth a million mana...but the price becomes much, much better if we can give a full map of it, and make contact. We can multiply that by notifying the local government as well."

Allya nodded slowly, even as he mentioned her false name she used as a cover identity (Trira wouldn't mind, Allya had let her friend borrow her own identities so many times their own legal stuff became kind of muddled from time to time. They each had copies of the other's official documents and identification, but with their own magical signature. It was highly illegal, and it had cost quite a bit, but damn it was useful). The guild would pay a small fortune to get their hands on as much information on the dungeon as they could, as fast as possible. Dungeons were economic assets on a level that could make or break a kingdom, and even precipitate an entire continent into war. Here...They were on the border zone between the Asarian Kingdom and the Elkis Republic. Those two nations hadn't spent the entire last millenia constantly fighting each other (although they were still at each other's throat diplomatically) for the simple reason that there was a several hundred (to a thousand in the broadest part, nicknamed Lost Sands, for the fact that no one came back from here alive. At least not officially) kilometers deep wasteland between them.

A dungeon would make that wasteland disappear. Turn the entire area into a fertile paradise. Oh, the wasteland wouldn't disappear completely, but it would definitely be cut in half...which would bridge the gap between both nations.

And create the one and only safe route between two halves of a continent that had, until now, been slashed by what was virtually an inpassable area for all but the most well protected and prepared of convoys. Even airships dreaded to have to fly over this area, as any technical difficulty forcing them to land might sign their death warrant, and the ones passing over the deeper parts of the wasteland simply vanished altogether.

A dungeon alone would have started a war, if only because of the amount of resources and potential tax revenue it represented, even in the middle of a fertile plain (which would become even more fertile, but still). Here? She'd be surprised if the entire continent didn't pounce on the occasion to get their feet into the door of a corridor that would allow commerce on a scale unseen outside of the Eris Empire. Whoever controlled it, and levied taxes and extracted a toll on passing merchants, would become powerful enough to finally break the status quo and become the dominant power on the continent.

The guild would pay it's standard fee, but it might be amenable to some more...esoteric rewards due to the current situation (probably equipment, rare books of spells and techniques from the archives, cultivation techniques, or even a prized synthesis technique). The guild paid so well because they would rush to claim the dungeon first, and establish a presence there. This allowed them to protect the dungeon itself (not from destruction, but stealing and relocating a dungeon core was a classic strategy when nations clashed, and especially when a new dungeon was found), and, of course, levy their own taxes on everything that came out of it. It wasn't that high, 20 to 25%, depending on the rarity of the loot (and quantity of mana they had acquired while inside), but given the number of people that delved into dungeons on a daily basis, it was an astronomical sum at the end of the day. Most governments opted not to add their own taxes on top of that (because getting adventurers angry at you was a bad idea, and government bureaucracies were usually hardly as flexible as the guild's when it came to these things), but they usually found alternatives, such as taxing the specialists and merchants that bought them from the adventurers and exported them. This, of course, created a whole smuggling ring of the most powerful artifacts, which inevitably degenerated into a black market, which came with it's own problems. Point was, dungeon towns, as were named the towns or cities near a dungeon, and thus getting it's benefits, were prosperous, rich, had the greatest opportunities for anyone willing to seize on them, and were some of the single most cutthroat places in the world.

As for the locals...well, the Republic or the Kingdom (whose citizens were each respectively nicknamed Repies and Pinguies by the other. The first was obviously slang for Republic, the other was a reference to a popular saying in the Republic that Asarian nobles were just fat, gilded penguins, due to their traditional outfit of a black and white coat with a golden trim) would pay handsomely for the location, but probably consider it treason to have sold the information to ANYONE else (bar the adventurer's guild), and would probably force them to sign a mana contract. One that, unfortunately, would be crafted by professional, neutral mages of the World Mage Court, whose sole job was making, overseeing and arbitrating on magical contracts. They were diligent, thorough, and completely uncorruptible. Not necessarily of their own choice, their oaths were just that well made and thorough. So there would be no way to wiggle out of it to make more profit. Still, it did allow them to snag some additional money, and maybe even grab a pardon. Well, at least a partial one, she knew no one would pardon her for the things that had pushed her to leave her home and wander the world as an adventurer and an assassin.

Still, the look Arkon and Orokis had shared...her instincts, sharpened by a decade of living on the road, and fighting for her life on innumerable occasions, were screaming at her that something was going on. Something those two had managed to hide from her. That, on it's own, was terrifying. Still, she couldn't do anything, and wouldn't do anything unless it endangered her...

Or they tried something exceptionally stupid, even for them.

Arkor put his greatsword on his shoulder, and gestured towards the hallway on the right.

"Let's move. John, you go first, shield up. I'll be right behind you. Trira, you're with me, cover my back. Pyn, your usual, pepper everything with arrows. Oro, you're in reserve, we'll need your strength later."

Everyone nodded, and then began moving forward.

*****

Alexandra looked at the screen in front of her. Emilia had done the same thing as when she had created a mirror, and turned a pane of air into some form of holographic projection. Right now she had somehow managed to get a moving view of the dungeon with that, kind of like if she was controlling a drone that was smoothly moving along the ceiling. Alexandra could have looked at the situation on her own of course, but she was far from comfortable using her disembodied form. Or maybe it was her natural state, whatever. She was too used being anchored into one body.

She looked as the adventurers moved towards the 2nd room. They were all surrounded by a nimbus of light, having some form of crystal hanging from their necks on their back and torso that projected light in front of them. It was surprisingly powerful, and much better than a flashlight, as they were virtually omnidirectional, and somehow didn't seem to blind them despite illuminating their faces. It was clearly magical, and far outside of her own experience. As for the adventurers themselves, something seemed...off, about them. They didn't have the type of cameraderie she had seen in her own experience, and some of their members seemed downright weird. Well, adventurers were oddballs to begin with, but still. The woman at the back of their formation, the one that had realized the party was in a dungeon first stood out more than the others. She was wearing light silks that seemed to absorb light. It was strange, everything she knew told her that she would be nearly naked, dressed only in diaphanous silk, yet she was completely covered as the cloth was somehow fully opaque, and only her hands were exposed. To be honest, she kind of looked like a ninja. Then she saw her eyes as she briefly looked up when the adventuring party formed up.

"We have a problem." Said Alexandra, calmly.

"Why?" Replied Emilia, frowning.

Alexandra pointed her finger at the woman, her features grim.

"This one is a killer."

Emilia looked surprised, and looked at her, but Alexandra simply shook her head.

"Just trust me, alright?"

The vampire nodded slowly, looking a bit doubtful.

Unfortunately, Alexandra was sure of her conclusion. She had seen far, far too many people with those eyes during her decades of service in the EFN, and far too many of them were wearing the same uniform as her. They simply didn't see their enemies, or anyone opposing them or their goals as human beings, and didn't hesitate a single second to wipe out entire cities if necessary. The worst part was that most of them weren't even bad people, she had eaten, drank and joked with them, they just...didn't see their enemies as human.

Maybe she was just overthinking things, but there was a serious potential for things to go wrong here. And if there is one thing she'd learned from the EFN, it was to always have failsafes and backup plans. LOTS of failsafes and backup plans. She began quietly preparing for the worst, half listening as the adventurers entered the second room.

******

"Are we sure this is a dungeon? This is a walk in the park!" Said John.

Allya looked around, and couldn't quite disagree. At least for now. The fight they had been in could hardly be called one. The three golems in the room had been torn to pieces, not even managing to make a single attack. John had simply barged into the room, bashing his shield against the golem in the middle, then flinging it to the ground and finishing it off by stabbing his sword in it's neck. Arkor had simply cut the golem on the right in a single horizontal swing, and Allya had just felt the wind from one of Pyn's arrows over her shoulder before seeing the last golem collapse, the arrow stuck in it's head, before it had even made more than a single step. She'd have to talk to the elf, it had taken an incredible effort of will not to turn around and throw her dagger between the ranger's eyes.

"It's only the beginning kid. It'll get tougher later." Said Arkor, amiably. It was strange how he changed when after a payday or when an operation was going exceptionally well. He could be a complete jackass when things were going wrong, but he was a surprisingly friendly person when his greed was satisfied, and a charming host. Still a jackass most of the time though.

"Ah! We'll see about that. This dungeon is shitty, I expected so much more. Nothing more than a piece of crystal in the end, eh?"

Luckily for him, he didn't see the horrified look Allya gave him, or he'd have mocked her, and she'd probably have killed him here and then. Unlike all of them, she had been inside of a dungeon before, and she knew they could hear and see what happened within their depths. They weren't omniscient, but they could focus on people of interest, and if the first group of adventurers ever coming inside it wasn't of interest, she didn't know what was. And she had seen a dungeon get angry. As a general rule of thumb, dungeons were challenging, but not overly lethal. Killing adventurers, was, after all, bad for business. But when they got pissed, the gloves came off. She'd seen a dungeon literally drop the ceiling of an entire cavern on an arrogant mythril ranked paladin who had just maimed one of the dungeon's favorite adventurers, before dousing the resulting rubble in some form of petroleum and setting it on fire. The debris or the fire wouldn't have been enough on their own, but combined, with the liquid permeating through every crack, and somehow managing to burn long after all oxygen had been consumed, had turned the entire debris pile into a blast furnace. She'd never seen a mythril rank get vanquished so fast, even less with almost contemptuous ease.

"So, where do we go now? Forward or left?" Said the elf, after giving John a disapproving glare.

Allya frowned.

"Left will only take us to a copy of this room, I think. Forward should get us deeper into the dungeon.

Pyn blinked.

"Right. Boss?"

Arkor pointed his sword at the passage forward.

"Forward. Same formation. Let's go!"

*****

"I don't like this."

Emilia looked at Alexandra, tilting her head.

"What's going on?"

"Something's wrong. Very wrong." She looked at Emilia. "You'll have to trust me on this, it's a gut feeling."

In fact, it was far more than that. If she didn't miss her guess, the apparent leader of the group, the one they'd called boss, and the other called Oro, had something going on behind the others' back. And a look at their own eyes and maneurism told her everything she needed to know. These two were plotting something, and were the type that took things, and 'removed' any obstruction in the most direct manner possible.

Emilia nodded.

"Okay. I trust you. What do we do?"

Alexandra gestured towards the wall to their right, and suddenly an entire chunk of it disappeared, revealing a pretty spacious alcove, almost another room. It was more than enough to house the two of them...and the two Palatial Guards waiting inside.

Alexandra gestured at the alcove while Emilia gaped.

"We hide. I'll cover the alcove with a thin wall. If their intentions are hostile, they'll try something, and we can get the jump on them."

Emilia raised her hand.

"Wait, stop. I trust you, but what are you planning exactly? This isn't it, I've talked to military officers before, heck, I've been raised by one! I know when someone is trying to withhold part of a plan to me."

Alexandra looked at Emilia with a slightly more appraising gaze. Maybe the vampire wouldn't be that limited as an assistant after all.

"Fair. Here's the plan." She made a gesture, then froze as nothing happened. She sighed, she'd...forgotten she didn't have her implants. Or even a holo projector. If she had one, a tri-dimensional plan of the dungeon would have appeared before them for her demonstration. She smiled sheepishly at Emilia. "Sorry, old habits die hard. Anyway. I'm going to use the core to entice them into revealing whatever they're trying to do. That means I'm keeping CQ and the Palace Guard here." She nodded at CQ, who nodded back, smiling, still incapable of understanding what was being said around her beyond a basic instinctual level. "Once they've tipped their hands, I'll advise. But current plan is, if they're hostile, we'll pop out and engage, priority targets are the mage and the rogue." She didn't really know what the woman's actual role was, but her clothes were designed for stealth and movement, and she had daggers. So there wasn't really that much leeway. "Mage first, terminate at all cost. I'll try to neutralize him when I'm...directing CQ as well." She smiled at Emilia's expression. "Hey, that's what any dungeon would do, plus, geek the mage first, am I right? The rogue might be dangerous, but she's secondary. Once we're engaged, I'll order every remaining golem in the facility to converge on us and take them from behind. I've made another fireteam of 6 of these guys." She nodded at the Palatial Guards. "They're waiting in an alcove near the third room. Then, well, let's try to at least take a prisoner, the leader, if possible."

Emilia nodded, then stepped into the alcove, dispelling her screen with a gesture. Alexandra gave one last look around the room, nodded to CQ, then stepped inside and sealed the alcove. There should be enough oxygen inside for a few minutes, but just to be safe she added some small holes towards the top.

Then an alert pinged her.

TARGET TERMINATED.

Wait, what?

*****

John was amused, and slightly disappointed. This was a dungeon? Even that jackass back at home had put up more resistance than these golems. He snorted, then charged into the room.

There were more of them than last time. No matter, they were easy meat. Metal. Whatever.

He shield bashed the first golem, and simply decapitated him with his sword. These things were ridiculously fragile! Then, he turned towards another golem that was making it's way towards him. An alarm triggered inside of him, this golem was moving differently than the others....

He brushed off the impression with a smirk, and swung his sword.

And the golem dodged.

His eyes widened, and he had barely the time to register that he had put too much energy into the swing, and was completely off balance, when the golem punched him in the gut. He gasped, the air driven from his lungs, then, as he started folding in half, the golem grabbed his head, and brought it down to meet it's knee.

For a second, pain overwhelmed John as the soft metal collided with his face. A horrible crunch sounded throughout the room as his nose broke under the impact, and teeth went flying, his jaw probably fractured as well. He took a step back by reflex, then let out a primal cry of pain and rage as he finally regained control of his own body. He charged the golem, and repeatedly attacked it. Except that it dodged every swing. The construct gave up ground, but he managed to avoid every strike. Of course, had John not been enraged and blinded by his pain, he'd have (probably) realized that the golem was always dodging in the same way, but through the veil of suffering and hatred, he was incapable of recognizing that. Then suddenly, the golem stepped aside as John swung, leaving him once again slightly off balance, and John belatedly realized he had pursued the thing to the entrance of the next hallway...Then it tripped him, and slammed him to the ground. He brought his hands up to lessen the impact...and his eyes went wide when they went through the floor. He had a split second to realize there was something under the floor before a 60 centimeters spike of stone drove through his forehead, killing him instantly.

*****

"Damn it!" Cursed Allya as she felt the rush of essence.

She looked as the golem fell into the pit, one of her throwing daggers driven into it's forehead, and quickly ran to the edge of the pit, despite already knowing that her teammate was dead. She looked down, and frowned as she saw the spike protuding from the boy's body.

"Shit..." She said darkly.

Apparently, the dungeon really hadn't taken kindly to his comments. And it wasn't interested in subtlety either. She kneeled next to the pit and looked at the golem, who was twitching slightly as it's internal artifices shorted out, and sighed. She didn't have the time to get her dagger, and it wasn't that expensive. Still, it sucked to loose ammunition.

"What happened?"

She looked up at Arkor on her right as he surveyed the pit, his face grim.

"He got surprised by the golem. It was different from the others, the others were just like puppets, moving slow, easy to destroy, this one...it was fast, at least faster than he was, and it had some training. It managed to get two good strikes in, and he lost his temper. Then it simply led him there and smashed him into the pit."

"I see..." Said Arkor, his face unreadable, then, he sighed, and looked behind at the rest of the party, Orokis and Pyn having joined them. Orokis looked vaguely upset, and was glaring accusingly at the corpse. Not surprising, he never liked the kid, none of them really did, he was just upset at losing a meatshield. Pyn on the other hand was looking slightly green, but wasn't throwing up or backing off. She had more stomach than Allya gave her credit for, she'd give her that. Then again, she'd planned and executed the heist of a bank, so she had to have at least some.

They'd taken care of the golems in pretty short order, but not fast enough apparently.

"Alright everyone. He knew the risks. We'll give him a burial once we're done here. We move on, we have a job to do." Said Arkor with the right amount of grim purpose in his voice. He probably only fooled Pyn, who shakily nodded, as Allya was experienced enough to read the complete lack of care in his undertone and his eyes. As for Orokis, he didn't care either way.

"We won't need to." She said as she got up, and looked at him as he stared at her in surprise. "We're in a dungeon, remember? It'll just absorb him when we're gone."

Arkor nodded, wincing slightly.

"Right."

Allya looked slightly to her right. Pyn was looking definitely green now, and looked like she was about to actually throw up this time. And Orokis....Orokis was looking worried, and was glancing nervously at the ceiling, as if truly realizing for the first time where they were.

Wait, no, she thought, there's something else...Like he just realized the risks of something.

Something that most definitely didn't have to do with a normal dungeon delve and mapping mission, her instincts told her.

"Let's move on. I'll go first." Said Arkor, before jumping over the pit, and gesturing them over. Allya sighed, and jumped after him. Orokis followed without a second of hesitation, and they all stared at Pyn, who wavered, looking down at the pit. For a second, Allya thought she was actually going to regurgitate her lunch into the trap, but then she took a deep breath, and jumped over the pit. Allya upped her opinion of the elf by another notch. She was definitely tougher than she looked.

They moved on, and they were nearing what looked like the entrance to a side room, when Pyn simply said:

"Stop."

Everyone froze, and Pyn came forward, slowly, carefully, then kneeled...and smashed her palm against a precise area of floor. Suddenly, an entire square of floor, the same size as the pit in which John had fallen into, broke apart, and collapsed into another pit of spikes. Allya gulped, she'd need to get better trap training, she was used to mechanical triggers, trapped windows, exploding doors, the kind of things people used to defend themselves and their property, not the kind of things only a dungeon had the resources or power of doing (well, others could, but they were way out of her league and she knew it), like making entire sections of fake floor to hide traps, with the full expectations of destroying it rather than simply withdrawing it. There was no need for tripwires, pressure plates, or anything really. Just a thin sheet of rock, gravity, and pointy things. She wasn't even sure she'd have spotted it before stepping on it. She probably would have been able to make it out unscathed, but still.

Allya and Arkor nodded in thanks at Pyn, who simply nodded back. Orokis simply looked a bit more stressed, a bead of sweat rolling down from his forehead. Allya hid a frown (not that she really needed to, as her lower face was hidden, but it could be seen in the creases around her eyes). Something was definitely going on.

Allya stuck her head over the rim of the entrance of the tiny hallway leading to the side room, carefully keeping a hand on the wall just in case, leaning slightly over the pit, then withdrew.

"3 golems. Their posture is odd, I think, they're like the one that killed John." She looked at Arkor. "What do we do boss."

Arkor thought for a second.

"We go on. This room doesn't have any exits, or any obvious treasure chests, does it?" Allya shook her head. "Good, then we don't need to explore it. If we have to, we can sweep it when we return."

Allya nodded, but something was concerning her...then she realized what it was, he didn't mean it when he said they could sweep it later. Arkor, one of the greediest man Allya had ever met, was rejecting the chance to make some money. She started seriously worrying. Enough that after jumping over the pit, she discreetly readied one of her poison vials to dip a dagger or projectile into, just in case.

*****

Alexandra frowned as the rogue readied...something. She didn't see quite what, and lost interest when they started moving forward again. She'd hoped the trap, however simple it may have been, would have maybe lightly injured one of them, or just slowed them down, but their ranger, the elf (she assumed she was one, she had pointy ears and looked like she didn't see the sun much. While in the middle of a desert. She didn't even want to know the genetics involved in that. Or maybe she had Ottoman Directorate Army style desert gear stashed somewhere, who knows), saw them with apparently just a glance, and destroyed the cover with stupendous ease. They barely even stopped for a few seconds to jump over, then continued on.

She watched as they stopped in front of the last trap, shattered it, and then readied themselves to jump over and engage the golems. She wasn't really sure why, but they weren't opting to simply pepper them with arrows from a distance, or just have their mage fling spells from a safe distance. Then again, they were adventurers, and according to Emilia, they had to give her defenders a 'fair fight', whatever that meant. It was some form of traditional courtesy, adventurers didn't simply cheese (a term that had survived surprisingly well over the century and a half since it's inception) their way through the dungeon, and the dungeon, to return the courtesy, wouldn't do the 'Rock falls, everybody dies' trick, like an angry Dungeon Master in a Dungeons & Dragons session. Problem was that she was already thinking of them as military targets, and while she wasn't going to break that courtesy before she had to, she was very much ready to pull off every trick she could to preserve Emilia and herself. That included collapsing the entire damn mesa on top of them if she had to. Not that she really knew how to do it without killing Emilia (she was pretty sure her body could survive it. Maybe), but still, a last ditch option if necessary.

They jumped over the pit, and engaged her golems. It was clear that they had learned their lesson, and they engaged the martial golems immediately, and practically ignored the normal ones. This quickly lead to the unwelcome surprise that the normal golems might be slow, but they hit hard. Their leader staggered back, then promptly barked an order at the mage.

"Oro! Burn them!"

The mage smiled...and then simply raised his hands, and started throwing gouts of flames at every golem he could see, pausing for a second at every kill to make sure they were dead, and weren't about to spring back up when he wasn't looking. It was...incredibly effective. As soon as her golems got caught in the flames, they stopped and dropped to the floor, their circuitry very clearly not made to operate at such temperature, and some of their internal systems catching on fire as well. She really needed to find a way to create heatshielding for them, she wasn't even sure a completely sealed suit of armor would be enough against such liberal use fire magic. She noticed that his teammates simply slipped behind him, either not wanting to risk themselves unnecessarily when he was doing so well, or simply not trusting his accuracy. Given how close some of the flames had come to the leader, probably the latter.

They stopped, carefully checking that every golem was done for, before assembling, discussing with some enthusiasm (except for the rogue, she didn't seem to care) about the fire magic's effectiveness, before continuing on. Halfway through the hallway that lead to the core room (it split off into two parts that joined back again right in front of the room. She wasn't quite sure why it was built like that, especially since the square contained only a big hunk of stone. She'd have to investigate later, and quickly added the task to her TO-DO list), the elf suddenly stopped, and her ears twitched, she then looked straight at the wall....and directly at her core. That behavior eerily reminded her of the Dalmatian European Federation Marine Corps combat drone, that looked like a giant pod of steel on 4 legs, and had two sensor antennas and a railgun mounted on it. It wasn't that tough or fast compared to most combat drones, but it was incredibly precise, and it's depleted uranium cored, tungsten wrapped penetrator rounds could go through neoconcrete walls like they were made out of paper, and the drone had the unnerving tick of stopping, twitching it's antennas, and then aligning it's railgun with blinding speed, and firing. The twitching antennas had been the last sight an uncountable amount of insurgents had seen on Io or UIS marines in Alpha Centauri. Alexandra shivered, and refocused on the adventurers as the elf spoke to the others.

"The core is close. If there's a boss, it'll be here." She looked at the others, and looked faintly worried. "Are you sure about this boss?"

The leader nodded, and took point, talking over his shoulder.

"Alright, this is probably going to be toughest battle. Pyn, try to keep whatever is in there off of Oro. Trira, you're with me. Oro, no real point in saving your magic, if you see an opening, use it." He turned around, and looked at his teammates "Everybody ready?" They nodded, and he nodded back, before yelling a warcry and charging in.

Alexandra wasn't expecting that. She was even less expecting the leader to lock gaze with CQ, then slam one of his hands on an intricately carved bracelet on his right forearm. Alexandra cursed as she realized that the piece of jewelry was covered in artistically camouflaged runes, that immediately began shining as he channeled mana into them. Then the next second he was gone.

If Alexandra hadn't been looking straight at him, she probably wouldn't have realized that he had leaped at a speed so high he would have left afterimages in human eyes. And that in a fraction of a second, his sword impacted CQ with the force of a sledgehammer. A rocket powered one.

A massive flash of light filled the room, and for a brief second everyone present was blinded (except maybe the golems, but then again even magic sensors had their limits according to Emilia). Alexandra recovered her vision, and saw the party leader land heavily next to his teammates, sprawled on his back, his sword skittering past him, stopping when the rogue stepped on it. Then the Earth-born suddenly realized that the room was bathed in a crimson light. In the middle of the room was CQ, surrounded by a massive shield of energy. Her armor was damaged, and she was...bleeding? Definitely bleeding, but the cut seemed too shallow to incapacitate her, well, if she could be incapacitated. That attack must have been incredibly powerful, for a level 26 boss to take that much damage after 90% of it had already been negated. Then again, anything hitting at the speed that guy had been moving at would hurt. A lot.

And it looked like he really hadn't been expecting to be thrown back.

Alexandra smiled, and took control of CQ.

She stretched out her neck as she felt CQ's body as if it was her own. To be honest, it was easier to move in that her 'normal' avatar, as she was far more used of being this size, yet it felt faintly...wrong, somehow. Nevertheless, it would have to do for now.

She smiled at the leader as he half sat up, looking at her with wide eyes.

"Surprised? You know, rushing and attacking with barely even a warning like that isn't very nice."

Oh, she'd nailed the bored and arrogant voice perfectly. Years of listening to officers that had earned their ranks through nepotism or political connections had finally paid off! She smirked as the adventurers took a step back as their leader scrambled to his feet. Whatever they had been expecting, a talking, seemingly sentient boss was not one of them. They looked at each other, then back at her.

"Ex...Excuse me, but are...are you the boss of this dungeon?"

Alexandra smiled. A small lie wouldn't hurt her much.

"Very much so. I am the Crimson Queen, final boss of this dungeon."

Then she stepped aside, gesturing at the core hovering over the altar behind her.

"And this, is the Dungeon Core of this dungeon."

She saw it immediately. The glint in the eyes of the mage and the leader. Greed, fear and hope. The look of a robber when they finally opened the vault of the bank and laid eyes on the gold bars inside. They were here for her core. Emilia hadn't said anything about that, but it made sense. Why destroy a dungeon in an enemy's territory when you could steal it? Any nation would probably pay a fortune to acquire her. Probably far more, actually.

The leader took a step back, and Alexandra realized that she hadn't controlled her expression as tightly as she had, and something must have showed. Oh well, it was time to be straight up.

"I see...so that's how it is. I won't let you take her, you know." She then unsheathed her sword, and as she readied for combat, she felt...something. She couldn't explain it, it was instinctual more than anything. A feeling of the whole room. She...knew she could move anywhere within it if she so wished. She looked at the mage, then stepped. An instant she was next to the altar, surrounded by the Palatial Guards, and for a span of time so small no atomic clock ever built could have measured it, she was nowhere, then suddenly she was standing in front of the stupefied mage. She immediately lunged, and plunged her sword straight through his heart, before pulling it out and cleanly decapitating him. Then, before she could even recover, she felt twin pinpricks of pain as two daggers hit exposed joints in her armor. The crimson shield flashed again around her, but they still managed to pierce the black cloth covering the gaps. She started moving towards the woman, only for the leader to intercept her. She blocked his swing, and took a step back.

"Go! I'll take care of her, kill the rest of the golems! Pyn, help Trira!"

The elf and rogue nodded, before facing her Palatial Guard. Alexandra mentally gave an order, and the golems started advancing, hiding behind their shields, their spears lowered. She then refocused on the leader.

"You are going to regret killing him." Simply said the leader, irradiating menace and killing intent. Unfortunately for him, Alexandra had stared down a UIS marine major in heavy battle armor that had just nuked a city (a functionally empty one, but still, a city), he was nothing compared to that man.

So, she simply attacked him.

And was very, very quickly reminded that not having her implants, and their combat software, sucked. She stepped back, gasping, the only reason why she wasn't decapitated being the barrier protecting her. Still, her throat bled. After a few other exchanges of blows, and several more cuts added to the collection she was already sporting, it was clear that he was far more skilled with a sword than she was, and he was of a much higher level than CQ's body was as well. If she didn't win this fight quickly, he'd wear her down via sheer attrition...Of course it was far more probable that the others would kill her barely truly combat capable golems, fancy name or not, and that they'd gang up on her and destroy CQ's body. Or he would just smash her himself.

After a few seconds of fighting one another, Alexandra felt the teleportation ability become available again....And she saw the barrier around her shatter into a million...petals? Dispersing into the air as the rogue yelled.

"Last one!"

For a split second, nothing happened...then the leader grinned, and reached for another bracelet.

Oh no you don't! She thought. She looked at him....and then stepped. She saw the leader's eyes widen, as she didn't appear flanking him, or even behind him.

But centimeters away from him, inside his guard, and with him inside her own. In starship terms, that would have been like emerging from hyperspace only a few hundred kilometers away from an enemy craft. The navy didn't call it the MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) manoeuver for nothing, with both ships in range of all of each other's weapons, and so close that missing was virtually impossible.

She stabbed her sword through his side, where the armor looked the lightest. Her sword pierced through the iron plate he had strapped to his torso, and stopped as the tip collided with the plate on the other side.

Then suddenly she lost her grip on her sword as he leaped back. She was reaching for it, when she came nose to nose with the tip of his own sword. Then she saw the tell tale glow of a runed item being activated, a flash, and she was suddenly catapulted back into her dungeon view.

She looked in shock as CQ's body slowly disappeared into motes of light. No, mana. Her head and neck were missing, blasted off by what probably was a beam of energy fired from the tip of the sword. The molten, bubbling spot behind where CQ's head used to be told all she needed to know about the power of the ray of energy.

Then, she shivered as the leader sheathed his sword, quickly uncorked and downed a potion, the bleeding of his wound stopping abruptly, a green shine illuminating the gash in his side as the flesh started knitting itself back together (so probably an elixirs then, most potions weren't that powerful according to Fernand), and started walking forward.

Towards her core.

Well, here goes nothing. She thought as she dissolved the fake wall behind which her 6 Palatial Guards were hidden, and ordered all of the surviving golems to regroup with them and march into the core room. Then she stopped, as something completely unexpected happened.

*****

"We...we won....Alright, so...we're done then, right?" Said Pyn.

Arkor continued walking forward, before stopping a few paces from the core, Allya following him closely. The assassin didn't even bother to answer. She knew the truth the second she saw the greed in his eyes when the boss stepped aside and revealed the core. How could she have been so stupid? Of course a man of such greed wouldn't walk away from an opportunity to make such ludicrous amounts of money. Even if it was tremendously stupid.

She looked at the core, then met Arkor's gaze, impassively, as he looked at her. He smirked, thinking she was on his side, while her mind panicked. She had heard stories, back when she was a legitimate adventurer, the kind whose biggest criminal records was a few bar brawls with fellow adventurers, and insulting the city's guards, not a glorified killer. Stories of dungeons being invaded by armies, intent on stealing their cores for their nations, or elite mercenaries. And most of these stories ended in fire and blood, the nation originally owning the dungeon declaring all out war on the thieves' masters. And then the United Dungeon council sent their armies. Legions of dungeon defenders marching throughout the world, before burning down the nation that had earned their master's ire, killing anyone and anything in their path.

Those stories were exagerated, obviously, if only for the fact that the UDC waged surprisingly clean wars, all things considered, but there was a kernel of truth within it: stealing a dungeon core was suicidal. And unlike what that moron thought, Allya knew that it's presence would be detectable for years after it was captured, and that eventually the guild would start a full scale investigation. One that would most probably end up with the signing of their death warrants. The adventurer's guild had a multitude of treaties with the UDC (they had to, given the co-dependent relationship of their respective members), and one of them, the first one, in fact, stipulated the expulsion from the guild, and the posting of a general death warrant for any guild adventurer guilty of stealing a dungeon core. It was both a way to garner favor from the UDC, and exonerate the guild from any responsibility.

"No, we are not. See, there is a much bigger prize here than a mere million mana."

"What? Where?" Said the elf, scanning the room.

Allya pinched the bridge of her nose. She couldn't help it, how could this girl be that oblivious?!? They were standing in front of the core for the gods' sake!

"Well my dear, the core of course!" He gestured at the floating gem in front of them.

Allya looked over her shoulder, and saw Pyn blench.

"B-B-But, that's insane!"

Arkor shook his head patronizingly.

"No...No it's not. Can't you see? If we were to bring this information to the guild, we would make a million mana. But if we brought the core to the right people...We wouldn't be paid in mana. We would be paid in titles. Land, letters of nobility, and a place for us and our children in the history books, and the high and mighty of the world!"

Allya blinked. He...wasn't wrong. Any nation insane enough to risk it would pay in nobility titles for a dungeon core. They would be offered a Barony at minimum, more probably a County. And if they pushed, they might even get a Duchy. She weighed the risks for a second...And decided that even such a high recompense wasn't enough if the chances of surviving was around 8%, at best, nonexistent at worst. She once again blessed her talent for quickly calculating odds on the fly, something that had saved her life innumerable times and gotten her kicked out of many gambling establishments.

Pyn gulped, and took a step back. Allya looked at the core...and she struck.

Arkor froze, let out a confused gurgle, before collapsing on the ground as his muscles refused to respond to his orders. For good reason, as 6 centimeters of steel had just severed his spinal cord. Allya calmly kneeled, extracted her weapon from her leader's neck, quickly cleaned it with a specially treated cloth, and then watched as her party leader died. Normally, a wound to the neck would take a few minutes to die from. In less than 30 seconds, Arkor's eyes fluttered and his mouth filled with foam, then Allya felt a rush of essence, and she got up. Normally, even a normal attack would have been enough, but she wasn't keen on taking any chances, so she had coated her dagger in a powerful neurotoxin, whose vial she had readied earlier. She turned towards Pyn, who was looking at her, horrified.

"Y-You killed him!"

Allya shrugged.

"He was going to get us all killed with this core stealing bullshit. Plus, you don't know who he was, I did. At this point, I'm fairly sure I did a favor to the world."

That made Pyn go even paler, and she took a step back. Allya laughed.

"Relax, I'm not after you. You robbed a bank, and that's pretty much it." She gestured towards Arkor's cooling body. "His list of crimes is so long you'd need an entire ledger to keep them organized."

"But, y-your contract-"

"Stipulates that he cannot put me in a suicidal situation without my approval. He broke the contract the second he decided to try and take a dungeon core." No need to mention that the contract wasn't truly working.

She sighed, and gestured towards the hallway.

"You can leave whenever you want. I'm not going to stop you. Of course, chances are I'll get the bounty before you do."

The ranger visibly wavered. She had seen Allya moving through the desert, and she knew the assassin would get to the nearest guild hall faster than she could. Her greed battled her self-preservation instinct and her fear, and won.

"F-Fine. What now?"

Allya looked at the core.

"Now, well we complete the job. Dungeon, I am here to establish contact. Can you hear me?"

Suddenly, a wall vanished. Allya jumped back by reflex, and unsheathed her daggers. She watched, wide eyed, as a pale young woman walked out, flanked by two of the soldier golems. Those had proven to be surprisingly tough, all things considered, especially in 3 against 1, as a few bloody cuts on her arms could attest to. Worst, however, was that the woman was holding a small book in one hand, and a sphere of energy in the other.

A grimoire, she thought. And probably an attack spell. It was hard to tell, at lot of spells could be 'kept' in a containment sphere like this, and you could only tell what it was either when it was being cast or dispelled, or if you were very good at magic. Allya very much wasn't, so she could only guess.

Then she heard the clatter of metal feet hitting the ground, and turned around to see another 6 soldier golems, 3 of the CQC ones, and another 3 of the dumb ones. They formed up in front of the hallway, blocking their escape route.

She looked back the at the young woman, who smiled, coldly. Allya shivered as she saw the long canines in that smile. She was a vampire.

That sealed the deal for her. Allya put her daggers back in their sheaths. The golems she could take care of. With a mage accompanying them? Maybe, if Pyn actually fought well. Against a vampire mage? Not a single chance in hell. Vampires were famous for being nearly impossible to kill, and their mages were notoriously powerful. After all, it's fairly easy to have very well trained mages if you're virtually immortal, and you can spend as long as you want studying the arcane arts.

Allya spread her hands out.

"We're not here to take the dungeon core. He did, but I stopped him."

The vampire smiled, a little warmer this time.

"I know. Otherwise I would have thrown this." She tilted her head towards the energy sphere. "As soon as the wall was down, and well, we wouldn't be having this conversation, now would we?"

Allya nodded.

"Fair enough."

She looked at Pyn, who had notched an arrow, but not drawn her bow yet. She looked at Allya, who gestured for her to stand down. The elf gulped, but complied, unnotching her arrow, and after a moment of hesitation, putting it back in it's quiver, and putting her bow on her back, where it suddenly adhered to the band across the back of her leather armor. Neat enchantment, if pricy for what it did. Still, quick draw bows could be useful.

"Good." Said the vampire. "Well, to answer your question, yes, the dungeon did hear you. As you can see she isn't in a very trusting mood right now. Something with your erstwhile companions wanting to kidnap her." She smiled, coldly. "So, tell me, what are your intentions, adventurers?"

Allya gulped. She'd just seen a flash of movement at the edge of the hidden...hallway? Room? The vampire had emerged from. Whoever this dungeon was (and apparently a female. Odd, most dungeons she'd heard of didn't really care about genders), she was pretty smart. They probably had troops in reserve. Not that Allya was suicidal enough to start a fight in those conditions. Still, it showed that the dungeon was still one step ahead, and would have probably prevailed, even if she hadn't taken down Arkor.

"We were in transit through the desert, crossing between the Elkis Republic and the Asarian Kingdom. We had a minor job to check out the ruins for any tampering" She didn't mention that this job was as much to make a bit of money on the move as to legitimize their movements in the eyes of the guild, and avoid suspicion after accomplishing their original goal. "Right now, we just want to go and collect our bounty for finding the dungeon. And, well, we get paid extra if we've explored it, and have established contact with the core." Allya looked at her for a second. "I have a question, if I may. Who are you?"

That seemed to catch the vampire girl by surprise. She let out a giggle, which was surprisingly cute, before making a mock bow, still keeping her grimoire and energy sphere in hand.

"Me? I am Emilia Von Oswald, of house Oswald, ruling house of the Western Marches. And I am this dungeon's assistant." She locked gaze with Allya, and something flashed within her eyes that almost made the assassin step back. "And her protector."

A single bead of sweat rolled down Allya's face before being absorbed by her clothes. She'd heard of the Oswalds, but she'd thought the tales about them providing elite combat mages as advisors and protectors to dungeons were just that, tales. Except that they apparently weren't. The Oswalds had some of the most lethal combat mages in the world, and there were so many legends surrounding them it was hard to tell truth from fact, which was probably very much to the Oswalds' taste. After all, the best weapon is the one you don't even have to use at all. It saves mana and equipment costs. Plus, for some reason, the fact that they didn't even need to fight made their reputation grew even more than if they had to demonstrate their power.

Point was, she didn't want to fight an Oswald mage. At all.

"I see...The reputation of your family preceeds you." Allya bought her hands back down, before scratching her head. "Look, I..." She sighed. "I'm sorry for what happened, but I can't really say or do anything else. I can tell you our leader never told us about his plans, but I have no proof. There's literally nothing more I can say or do. Can...Can we leave in peace? Please?"

That wasn't exactly true. She was fairly sure that between her and Pyn they'd take half the golems with them if push came to shove. Given the tight space, unless Emilia was completely insane, they'd have enough time to do that as she conjured a spell precise enough to kill them without endangering the whole room -and herself- in the process. Still, it would be an hopeless gesture of defiance at best.

Emilia sighed, and looked at the ceiling, seemingly in thought, but...were her eyes...moving? Allya looked up, just in time to see letters drawn in sand on the ceiling vanish. She managed to catch the last few words though.

'the faster we'll get more adventurers coming here.' It read. She looked down at Emilia, who looked vaguely embarrassed. The vampire cleared her throat, and she suddenly looked much younger, and far less terrifying. Allya began to subconsciously relax.

"Right. Well, the dungeon isn't interested in your deaths. You may go." She dispelled the sphere in energy in a flash of blue flame. Spirit fire, recognized Allya. She gulped, suddenly tensing up again. The vampire might look cute and innocent, but that spell was made to devour the core of a being, consuming it in a fire fueled by the core's own power. It was a terrifying spell, and probably one of the most lethal dueling spells against an unprepared opponent. There was a reason it was the spell the most used in duelist rings (rings loaded with combat enchantments. They were originally designed for anyone to be able to fight a magic duel, but they were mainly used as hidden weapons or last resort measures nowadays) if you had the money to hire an enchanter talented enough. Having such a weapon was every assassin's wet dream. Well, at least at her level. "Just to be clear, that doesn't mean you get to set up camp here. Take your things, and go. If for any reason you have something to take from the bodies of your comrades, for a contract or something, then tell me. Otherwise leave them be."

Allya thought for a second, then decided that taking the head of Arkor and Orokis for their bounties simply wasn't worth the bad reputation (people would think she'd backstabbed and killed them, while they might be less inclined to think that if she didn't claim the bounty). Plus, it was pocket change compared to the bounty from the dungeon. Still, she really, really wasn't sure if leaving the very expensive and rare rune bracelets Arkor had been sporting for a newborn dungeon to disassemble and replicate was a good idea. Then again, she wasn't going to challenge the floating crystal with a combat mage friend and a small army of angry looking constructs.

She looked at Pyn, who nodded, then she slightly bowed.

"We have nothing to take. We will leave immediately." She was very thankful they'd left their supplies in the ruins' entrance. They wouldn't be able to carry it all, but they wouldn't have to worry about rationing food or water, even if they decided to turn back, and most importantly, Orokis' books and scrolls were in his bag, as well as Arkor's backup gear and potions. Those would be worth a pretty penny. Given the slight glint in Pyn's eyes, she'd probably realized that as well.

They turned around, and the golems parted to let them pass through. They walked (or rather nervously trotted for Pyn, while Allya kept a calm, measured pace, perfectly aware that the dungeon was probably still watching them) to the 6th room, then stopped in surprise. There was...a bridge? Over the pit filled with spikes. Well, 'bridge' might be a tad bit too generous. It was a giant slab of stone dropped over it. Still, it looked solid, and after some experimental testing by putting a foot and some of her weight on it, she looked at the ceiling and smiled. Her mouth was hidden, but hopefully the dungeon would recognize the expression by the creases around her eyes. She then walked to the other side, then turned around, putting her hands on her hips, and raising an eyebrow at Pyn.

The nervous elf looked at her, then took a deep breath, and carefully, very carefully, made her way across. It was quite hilarious really, as the elf was obviously not trusting the bridge, but at the same time didn't want to insult the dungeon by refusing it's help and courtesy.

They passed the 5th room, with the pit crossed by intersecting bridges. A single look into the room confirmed Allya's suspicions, the extra golems being indeed those they'd ignored on their way in. Well, except the soldier ones. She'd have to make sure to notify the guild of that. They passed the room without incident, and arrived at the end of the 4th one. Allya made a point not to look down into the pit, and so did Pyn, albeit with a choked sob. She didn't want to see the empty pit, where her fallen teammate would have been dissolved and absorbed by the dungeon.

In truth, they needn't had bothered, as the body was still there, but it is debatable whether that would have been better or not.

They walked past the first few rooms, then, finally, they left the dungeon's influence, and Pyn quite literally collapsed. With lightning-quick reflexes (and some expectation that the elf would do so), Allya managed to catch her. She was noticeably shorter than the elf, but at their rank, however modest it was (she officially was a steel ranked adventurer, and so was elf, although they both qualified for copper if they were willing to...show some of their less than legally acquired equipment), their height or build had little to do with their physical strength. Something that had been imprinted into Allya's mind forever when she'd seen a pixie rip a bandit's arm off and throw him through a tree with her cute, tiny hands.

Pyn looked at her and smiled in thanks, and Allya half dragged her back up, putting herself under the taller girl's shoulder.

"Come on. We can rest once we're at the entrance. I'm sure the dungeon won't mind us taking a short rest before moving on."

Pyn smiled and nodded. "Yeah. Plus, stone's pretty uncomfortable. I never thought I'd praise our bedroll's comfiness." She said with a desultory grin.

Allya laughed, and she mentally paused. Something seemed wrong...until she realized that this time, she wasn't laughing half heartedly. She smiled her first truly warm smile at the elf and helped her make her way to where they had stored their supplies.

Well, maybe she was salvageable after all.