The next flight of stairs led to a small room rather than a simple landing, with four openings, including the one they came from. One doorway led to yet another stair going down. The other two were identical vaulted arches at right angles of each other.

“So we have a second floor in these… cellars? – and at least a third. Same thing? We check everything on this one?” Jonas asked.

He looked at his team, but everyone seemed to agree. So, Ira entered one of the corridors at random, and they followed suit.

The corridor was far longer and slightly taller than the one on the previous floor, with widely spaced sconces holding the small yet powerful torches, but the room it opened into was nearly identical. Following the previous floor plan, there were also two veteran badgers tucked in the room, just of a slightly higher level.

Cellar Brown Badger × 2

Level 15 veteran

Health: 366

Mind: 156

Endurance: 250

Aether: 0

The badgers immediately rushed them as they noticed the Professionals intruding on their cellar abode. As on the floor above, Ira planted himself in front of the critters coming in, and distributed slashes and foot kicks, establishing himself as their most significant target in case they had different ideas.

Brown Cellar Badger claws for 12 (13-1) physical damage (14 defence rating)

The Defender breathed an internal sigh of relief. Despite the increased level, the badgers didn’t hit that much harder. It would be hard to judge from the feeling of the claws alone through the chainmail, but the Labyrinth provided a much more accurate tally of the strength of their enemy. Ira avoided one bleeding attack thanks to a last-second warning by Jonathan, endured one bleeding bite from the second badger, while the team simply focused on the closest badger, dispatching it speedily, and then massacred the other.

Just as on the previous floor, no loot appeared, except one cut of fancy meat for dinner.

They rested a bit, recovering endurance and aether, then entered the next corridor going deeper in the cellar complex. The corridor led them to a wider room, which was surprisingly empty. Both Jonathan and Alton checked the debris accumulated to the side, worried that a badger might have burrowed under the wood and splinters to hide, but there was no one.

Ira merely shrugged.

“Hey. Empty is empty. But there’s still another corridor leading further in. So this floor is different.”

Dwelling Brown Badger

Level 14 elite

Health: 605

Mind: 259

Endurance: 408

Aether: 39

Cellar Brown Badger Young

Level 16

Health: 195

Mind: 83

Endurance: 135

Aether: 0

“Ouch! Two of them, beware!” Ira whispered from the entrance, stopping the rest of the team before they could be noticed.

Jonas peered over his friend’s shoulder, reading through the descriptors. He found himself agreeing. They needed to be careful this time. The previous elite had taken all their efforts and quite a lot of Guss’s healing capacities.

This one needs a different strategy, he thought.

“Alton? You have the most health after Ira. Try to distract the young one, and we all kill it while Ira keeps the adult busy. Guss? Don’t heal anyone immediately unless they’re real, real low.”

“I’ll focus on Ira,” he confirmed.

Ira looked back at Alton, and both men shrugged at each other. The team readied itself from the corridor opening, then burst into the room in a single pack. While Ira rushed the larger beast, Alton stepped up and knifed the level 16 badger, then Jabbed and Stabbed him with his skills for good measure. The outraged badger cub emitted a loud high-pitched squeal and turned to the knife-wielder, trying to bite him in response. Jonathan warned the Piercer just in time to avoid the bleeding attack that was coming.

Meanwhile, Jonas used Air Burst to push the elite away from the group and then berated himself mentally. Who knew how much aether he’d need to Bolt the main target? But with the space opened, Ira followed the irate badger, allowing the rest of the team to spread around the youngster where they unloaded all the attacks they had. Guss skipped trying to bash the young badger and remained watching both the Defender pressing the badger toward the sidewall and the much more abstract team descriptor that was at the forefront of his mind-view.

The large badger didn’t miss, unlike his younger model. The flashing eyes of intimidation bore on Ira, and bleeding bites and claw rakes fell on the chainmail man, and Guss had little choice but to start dispensing some heals, letting the main team fend for themselves.

At one point, the young badger turned toward Laura who kept hammering his sides, and bit her, snarling in anger, but she barely felt the bite and the small bleeding. The beast was nearly dead, and Alton still had over two-third of his health total. Ira was nearing half health already, and that health total was bucking up and down under the repeated assaults of the elite badger.

“Balls, the badger used his intimidation on me. Lost some of my healing ability,” Guss suddenly yelled.

“Focus. Let’s make sure we kill it fast. Use everything you have,” Jonas yelled back.

The young badger down on the ground, the three combatants joined the main fight, Alton slightly clumsier as he brought his knives – both original and Labyrinth-provided – on the elite. The beast’s health started to drop now on earnest as weapons pummelled the badger.

As Ira staggered, his health reaching under 40, Jonathan yelled about a new “bleed”, and Ira managed to dodge the bite. Jonas used Air Burst immediately, which pushed the badger away, giving Guss a chance to place a second heal. The badger didn’t like that new push away and turned toward Jonas, biting and clawing. Jonas felt the small but sharp teeth bite through both robe and trousers.

“Don’t heal me! Push Ira back to safety!” he yelled.

2 Brown Badgers: 1253XP/6 contributors = 209XP

Ira panted. Then, he swallowed twice as he dropped on the straw-covered ground, removing his chainmail coif to wipe his head. Then he looked at the hand and noticed that he hadn’t even sweated – at least not that much. He exhaled slowly.

“That was far too close,” he said.

“One or two more hits and you’d be at zero,” Alton confirmed drily.

“I got two lucky dodges on the last swipes. One less… and I’d be dead?”

He laughed suddenly, reaction settling in.

“You know, I should be a wreck. I’m sore all over, but…”

“I almost had a heal again,” Guss offered.

“I’m good, though,” the Defender replied, noticing one point of health coming back.

Jonas felt relief but overall agreed with his friend.

“All the badgers on this floor are higher level than the previous one. And that fight was far too dangerous. We got lucky, but I think we’re already far too deep,” he said.

He looked at the rest of the team, but no one seemed to argue the point. Laura was checking her hand, where the badger had bit without marking the gloves, and she didn’t comment. Jonathan was still gripping his own sword. It was fairly obvious that they couldn’t go on like that.

“So? What do we do?” Guss asked.

“We go back out. We can’t do it like that, but… once we’ve got more levels, we can try again.”

“You’re sure?” Ira asked.

“You tell me, it’s you who faces those beasts. I mean, each level gives you more health, and Guss more aether for his heals. And if we can get better equipment, then we’ll be better off overall.”

Laura turned toward the end of the room, where a long wooden box laid.

“Speaking of which.”

Iron Defender

Two-Handed

Quality equipment

Requires: Level 8

Provides: 12 physical base damage (+12% STR), +8 defence rating, +2 STA, +29 health

They all gathered around the long container, looking at the nearly brand-new four feet long sword. Jonas was reminded of the two-handed sword that the woman Professional had carried so casually in London. This one was plainer looking, but from the descriptor… one could see what a much higher sword could be. And from Ira’s smile, he probably expected as much.

“Big defence, big Stamina, big health, big everything. Looks like it’s made for you,” Laura said, looking at the Defender.

He pulled the sword from the box and swung it left and right, and almost lost it as it slipped from its grip.

“Well?” she asked.

“Feels too heavy or something. Bollocks. I think it’s almost impossible to use since I don’t have the level.”

“Looks like you’re stuck with the small one you have for a while,” Jonas ribbed his friend.

“Well, I really wanted it!” Ira whined.

The whole team exploded in laughter at his discomfited face. The man shrugged and started to clumsily tie it to his side. Jonas had to intervene.

“Give it to me. You’re going to hamper yourself with this long thing.”

“You’re sure?”

Jonas waved the small wand in his hand.

“Don’t need to get close in, so that big iron bar won’t bother me during the combat. Stop worrying, I’ll take care of it until you have enough levels to hold it. That’s not going to be long, we’re already level 3.”

The Defender reluctantly handed his prize to Jonas, who found himself trying to tie it in a way where it wouldn’t cut his robe. He quickly realized that the cloth was sturdier than he’d thought.

“We’ll drop it at the Plaza. Since we go back there whenever we use Recall, it’s where we can store stuff. Can we get that box?”

Ira bent over the container and tried to pull, then Laura and Guss came around and started pushing with their high Strength, but to no avail.

“It’s stuck. I don’t think we can’t take it out.”

“Okay. Storage is a no, then.”

They finally reached the stair’s top, and the three stone circular walls. Jonas checked the sun, finding it relatively close to the horizon. Despite the fights, they had not spent that much time in the cellars, if that’s what they were.

“Almost sunset. Let’s camp here?”

“Sure. But let’s skip the meat. All that meat is making me feeling stuffy.”

“Fine for me.”

“Don’t know for you, but I am trying that badger,” Alton countered.

They grabbed some branches from what looked like nine stunted trees next to the ruins, in a regular formation that made Jonas wonder if that wasn’t a remnant of some orchard garden. He then lit them in his customary Flame Bolt fashion, and they gathered around the campfire in the half-house they’d picked.

“So. That’s what a lair is like,” Jonathan commented.

Jonas grimaced.

“And it’s deadly. The first floor is ok, but we’re not ready for the second floor. I shudder to think about what’s on the third. And maybe it’s not even the last,” he said.

He looked toward Guss.

“Any cousin Luther wisdom on those places?”

“I think his job is to go to that kind of place to get stuff. His company is trying to get specific, expensive things from the Labyrinth. He didn’t explain anything about lairs, but I think that’s what he was referring to. He and his team… rotated between those places, and they had schedules and licenses.”

Laura looked incredulously at Guss.

“Schedules? Like a shop schedule or something?”

“Not exactly, I think. But he seemed to imply that you had to wait until you went back to the same place. So… I think the badgers will come back.”

“And the items?”

“Probably as well.”

Jonas waved that concern away.

“We’re not going back until we can use those items we got from it. The requirement descriptor might be there to tell us when we should be ready to face the lair. So, we need to get level 9 or bigger first. Then, we go back and see how we do on the second floor before risking the next.”

Ira looked wistfully at his newer sword which Jonas had put on the wall side.

“Yea. I’d like to use it. On the badgers.”

“You’re good?” Jonas asked him.

“Yes. I mean, we are fighting rabid beasts non-stop, but it’s fine,” he confirmed.

“Normal people would probably be down after a fight or two. But we bounce back quickly. I noticed, all those vitals start coming back after a couple of minutes. Aether, endurance, even health. Let us take a breathing, and you don’t even need my healing,” Guss noted.

All of them looked pensively at the crackling fire and the two meat skewers cooking on it.

“That’s what Professional means,” Jonathan finally said.

“And that’s what we are now,” Laura commented.

“We endure anything,” he said.

“As long as we don’t get killed,” Jonas reminded them.

They ate the meal, cooked eggs shared in pairs, and the sour, but filling apples, before spreading their improvised beddings next to the stone walls. Not that they really needed it, Jonas thought. The weather was still unnaturally cloudless, the wind a small breeze, and the temperature far better than London’s.

“What’s next?” Jonathan asked as they all lay, facing the stars that were starting to fill the sky.

“Explore more the zone, level… and hopefully find easier lairs, ones that we can complete to allow us to cross that Gate,” Jonas said.

“I’d like that idea,” the Watcher replied.