Jim, Sammy, Susan, Kelly, Kellinger, and Og stand in front of the dungeon portal. Ace and his team had just come out not a half hour ago and briefed them on what to expect. Though Jim was taking it all with a grain of salt. Whether the others noticed, he had. The dungeon changed quickly. Maybe for the people who dived it regularly it was gradual, but the early floor might as well be completely different now. With that in mind the only thing Jim trusts is the actual layout details.

Still, it needed to be done and done often. Those wolves weren’t going to wait for them to level up at a leisurely pace. With a sigh, Jim turns to the rest of the group and claps his hands. “Well, what are we waiting for? Our group might be more lopsided than theirs, but we should be able to get through this.” And he steps through the portal.

Once through Jim darts to the side and ducks down with his short bow ready. Not his main weapon of course, but a longbow isn’t exactly made for cave tunnels no matter how big the last couple rooms might be.

The two goats in the entrance room turn towards him and paw at the ground. Before they can charge though, Sammy bursts through the portal at a full charge. This shocks both Jim and the goats. Jim even yells at her to be careful.

With a laugh, Sammy slams into the farthest goat and keeps moving. The goat was already near the back wall and in no time is a lot more up close and personal with it. Jim can only shake his head, though only after letting fly an arrow at the other goat. This shot gives proof to all the time he has spent training in the forest as it strikes true. It spears the goat through the eye and falls over dead before it can even realize they hit it.

By this point everyone else has entered the room. Most of them give a nice round of applause for his feat of skill but Kelly has other things on her mind. With a ground eating stride she comes up behind Sammy and tells her not to kill the goat yet. “Just break its legs. I haven’t had a chance to come in here and test some of my theories about these dungeon monsters.”

Jim steps up behind her and coughs to get the two’s attention. “While I can appreciate wanting to explore the bounds of our settlement’s centerpiece, now might not be the best of times or place.”

Kelly spins around to face him and glares down at him, “what better time or place? How could I not try some experiments here? What better place than such an easy to access dungeon?”

Jim meets her glare with ease and shrugs, “it is exactly because of how easy it is to get here. This place is literally the center of our world right now. I don’t want to think what might happen if you mess with the dungeon’s monsters. Dungeon breaks are a thing and most common in young dungeons.”

“During my time under the tutorial guide, I picked up a few tidbits. Things such as how scaring a young dungeon with a high level adventurer is likely to lead to a death trap as it tries to counter that greater threat. Though most relevant to this is the fact that the dungeon cares about the monsters in it. Sure, once a dungeon gets big enough the early floors are less important, but this place only has two right now.”

“Please don’t make it so we have to deal with a death trap. There are more dungeons out there and one or two should be close enough for a research trip. We want to handle this place with velvet gloves until it is sturdy enough.”

Kelly and Jim stand there glaring at one another in a standoff until Susan interrupts. “Why is this the first time I’ve heard about that? Isn’t information like that something that should be spread out so others don’t do something stupid?”

Jim turns away from Kelly and shrugs, “in a normal dungeon dive it wouldn’t come up. In fact, I don’t even know if anyone else here has a clue about it. The only reason I know is because one of the guides in my instance was a professional dungeon diver. And to be honest? This is one of those things that should be kept secret, if only because you just know someone would try and see how far they can take it.”

“I wouldn’t have said anything if not for Kelly going all mad scientist.” And he turns back to Kelly, “like seriously? The first thing you ask for isn’t to keep it alive but to break its legs! Not only don’t we have time to faff about torturing goats, but you don’t even have any anesthetic. It might be a dungeon monster, but it can still feel pain.”

Kelly crosses her arms and frowns, “I’m not going to be able to get any work done in here, am I?”

Jim sighs and shakes his head, “if by work you mean cutting up dungeon monsters or otherwise interacting with them outside of the social norms of fighting, then yes. You won’t be getting any work done. In fact, once we leave here I am telling Ace what restrictions to put in place to keep the dungeon a safe... Hmm, well not safe but a safeish place to gain experience and meat. Especially that last one.”

“We don’t need the dungeon replacing the goats with slimes or the undead. From what I understand, this place supplies all the meat for the settlement. We need to diversify that, but for now that isn’t an option. Especially once the wolves have gone through the forest. 96 wolves need a lot of food.”

Then he shrugs and turns to the rest of the group. “That all aside, I have to reiterate. Our group is lopsided. For instance, we don’t have enough frontline fighters. I can sub in during a pinch, but most of us are ranged damage. Sammy, from what I have heard, you’re a great tank. To clear the second floor though, we need more than just one tank.”

“Besides you, Sammy, the only other person here that mains melee in our group is Susan and she’s a more rogue style fighter. Compare that to everyone that went with Ace and the disparity becomes clear. Jack, Bill, and Tess all are front-line fighters. Besides that, Jeremy and even Ace are melee. Our team? Four of us are ranged.”

“I noticed this right away and I am sure Ace knew what he was doing but that doesn’t make our job easier. What Ace did was take almost all the people who can take a hit so they would survive. We didn’t know what was on the second floor or even if it existed. Now though not only do we know it exists but we know what is there.”

“That however only makes our dive possible. We need to play smarter, not harder.” He turns back to Kelly. “Now Kelly, if you don’t think you can hold yourself back you can always leave. Since we know what to expect the chances of us getting a terminal case of death is low. I don’t know if we need you to clear the dungeon but I would rather come out alive than deal with you not playing your A game.”

Kelly sighs, “science waits for no man, but I guess I’m not a man.”

Jim smiles and pats her on the shoulder, “there are plenty of things to experiment with now. The subject of dungeons can wait for now.”

Drama over the team makes quick work of most of the first floor. The assassin vine fell easily and even the room with six goats wasn’t too much of a problem. Though, as Jim predicted, the lack of front-line fighters was quite the hindrance.

Now though, they have made it to the first floor’s kobold room. After Susan has finished harvesting all the berries, everyone gathers up, just out of sight of the monsters inside. Jim points at himself, Og Pwner, and Susan then across the room at one stalagmite. Then he points at Sammy and motions her to just enter normally. Jim holds up his hand with three fingers out, two fingers, one finger, and finally just his fist.

With a shake of said fist, he charges out into the room towards the stalagmite for cover with Og and Susan close on his heels. Moments after that Sammy comes in behind them. She stands firm right out in the open as she pounds her sword on her shield to draw attention to herself.

The kobold mage takes a potshot at Jim, but he didn’t expect the ranger to keep moving so the ice bolt completely misses. This gives the two enough time to duck behind cover once again before a follow-up shot is cast. Frustrated, the mage sends his second shot at Sammy but with a well-practiced motion she dips down and angles her shield, sending the bolt off course.

Presence established in the room Kelly and Kellinger enter, using Sammy as their shield. The ice mage tries another shot, but Kelly stops that nonsense right in its tracks. She isn’t the best mage at dealing damage but her ability to counter is second to none.

This is fine though as it leaves Kellinger open to send some spells down range. His first spell though isn’t some classic damage dealer. Rather it is one of his favorite crowd control spells, grease. The enemy mages don’t even have a chance to counter it as a thin film of oil coats the ground under their feet.

As they aren’t moving around this normally wouldn’t cause too much trouble. Sadly for the kobolds, Og and Jim aren’t going to give them a chance. Jim’s flawless archery tags a shieldless melee kobold center of mass knocking it over while Og takes the shotgun approach and rapid fires some metal ball bearings he had salvaged. While he could have been just as accurate his flurry of projectiles forces the other two melee kobolds and the mage to dodge out of the way only for them to slip and fall as well.

At this point the only enemies on their feet are the goat and the healer. This one sided fight however is more than enough to draw out the kobold leader who charges into the room. Luckily for her the kobolds had been grouped closer to the olive tree and so her entrance isn’t spoiled by a pratfall.

Her goats on the other hand are not so well off. Og had continued to lay down suppressing fire with some gravel and so they targeted him first. This brought their path directly through the edge of the grease spell’s area and half of them took a dive. In fact, the only reason the other two remain standing is the first two gave them enough warning and their impressive agility allowed them to hop over not only their comrades but the oil slick. This allowed them to continue their attack.

Though this turns out to be to their detriment. While Og was busy suppressing the main group of kobolds, Jim had been ready. An arrow drawn and ready, the edges of the arrowhead glinting with a blue sheen. He releases and as it flies; the arrow splits in half. One half flies true and takes the closer goat in the throat. The other piece, while off course, still scores a hit on the other goat’s helmet. The armor protects, but there is still enough blunt trauma to stun the goat for a moment. That moment is just enough though as Susan ghosts out from a nearby stalagmite and with a thrust pierces the goat’s throat before she withdraws back to cover.