They gathered Balthus and Olson and departed. Balthus was forcing the townsfolk to depart with their hard-earned solidii challenging people to a completely unfair [Belcihing] contest and Olson was needed to protect them from the blizzard. With Josefine using some spells for faster overland movement, they reached the gnome village in less than an hour. The first thing they noticed was the amount of blood and monster parts scattered everywhere.

Giant spiders from the deepest parts of the valley, monitor goats, some sort of lizard-goat hybrid from the mountain, more hellshadow cougars, and some other monster types Cless didn't know. What she knew was that while the fighting was not as frantic as a few hours ago, they were still getting some Experience as she kept earning her contractual share.

"I'm going inside," Cless said at the foot of the ramp leading up around the hill to the tower. "Investigate the ruins of the village and the surrounding areas."

They split around and Cless climbed the hill. More dead monsters, some four-legged rakebirds that are bad at flying but can rake with all four clawed feet while they keep themselves aloft with their wings, more bugs of the too-squished-to-recognize type but what she was dreading to find another kind of remains.

Human bodies.

Cless entered the tower and checked everything but found no human remains. The monsters either decided to devour the people and leave the other monsters behind or they are still alive. They left equipment behind, blankets, bedrolls. Everything covered in monster juices. Eww. She returned downstairs and met the rest of the expedition and wait as they returned.

"The stampede seems to be over for now," Josefine reported. "Enough monsters entered the Dungeon to devour all the miasma coming out. The surrounding area is clear of monsters."

They walked to the Dungeon entrance, noticing there was a stream of dead monsters leading there.

"Lured monsters don't fight outside the Dungeon unless people attack them," said Olson. "Learn this, Cless. During a stampede, you hunker down, hide and let the monsters go in the Dungeon. That's the place's job. Lure in the monsters, keep them locked inside."

"Our job is to go inside and keep the monster population in check," Cless added. She felt something out of place. The gnomes knew that but not the elves.

"Yes. In a controlled environment," Balthus added. "Where you can get stronger as you use it. We learned all that too late."

They reached the entrance and the inverse wall hall before she could ask about how they learned it.

"The gnomes knew how to manage their Dungeon," Cless pointed out. "They made a wall to keep the monsters from coming out while keeping it easy to get in."

They reached the wall gate. It was wide open but not broken.

Josefine stopped by the door threshold and focused. "Beyond this wall starts the dungeon proper. Cless, you go with your guild to find the survivors while we guard the wall."

She saw Balthus and Olson already climbing the stairs leading to the top of the wall. Cless was dumbstruck. Why wasn't at least one of them coming? The Great Sage must have sensed her internal conflict.

"If they are inside, they must be fighting nonstop. Did the Experience notifications stop?"

"No." Cless closed her eyes and thought. It means they were still alive.

"If they are still fighting, there is a chance they will make the Dungeon spew more miasma and trigger a second stampede. Only this time, it will not drag just the small fry from the valley and lower mountains. We are at the edge of the civilized world. There is no monster to absorb miasma outside around this Dungeon. The miasma expelled next will reach the mountains. Can you guess what kind of monster it will attract?"

Yes, she could. The small fry was all lured in. Next would be the big ones. Manticores, dragons, and abominations.

"She does, Great Sage Headmaster ma'am," Balthus mocked Josefine, earning a groan from the elf. "In you go kids. If one of the big guys show up, I want to fight without bystanders."

"Fine. We are going."

The five entered the dungeon, going down the first tunnel. The stench of organic decay and monster fluids hit them hard. Cless noticed the vents seemed dimmer, almost non-operational. Without the circulation of air provided by them, the cavern air quickly became stale and unbearable. She donned the Midgard amulet and checked the Skill she took back from Vic.

[Spellslinger (D)]: Reduce magic power cost of spells by (level x 0.2)% (Currently 16.4%).

With the amulet, she would recover her entire Magic Power pool in a little more than one hour and twenty minutes. That was about three power per minute. With the [Spellslinger], she would be able to use four Power per minute considering there was time to rest without using magic.

They went until the fork in the tunnel, wondering how bad it was. The cavern was littered with monster parts. From the way of things, killed by other monsters. There was no sign of weapon or spell. Now that the vents were mostly turned off, the centipede path seemed less hot. They went down that path. After an hour of spelunking, they were further in than the last time they entered.

They met the first opposition in the form of a pack of monitor goats. These monsters were still too close to normal animals to display any kind of power other than their improved physical ability. They were dispatched in minutes. Their fighting prowess was on the level of orc warriors.

For defeating 12 monitor goats, Shad earned 192,000 Experience Points. Shad Reached level 20.

How easy were the lower levels... Only sixty more to go. No surprise she wasn't getting any Exp from these monsters, they were below her personal threshold. They kept walking and the stream of contract Exp returned. Shane's guild was fighting again.

The next monster group was composed of Hellshadow cougars. They were beaten and weakened from fighting some of those four-legged rakebirds. Drunk on miasma, the cats hissed and pounced at them even though it was obvious they were severely wounded. The guild attacked them even before Cless could give an order. She was hesitating because she wanted to try one thing.

"Silvefang, hold one of them alive for me!" She shouted between Holy Bolts.

The lycan grappled the last cougar even though it was clawing and biting recklessly as if in a frenzy. Cless tried her technique on it.

"Beast Taming!"

For defeating 6 hellshadow cougars, Shad earned 5,700 Experience Points.

The cruel reality of dividing the Exp by the current level.

The cougar tried but couldn't resist. She just overcame its psyche. It stopped fighting back and whimpered. What Cless wanted to know was if a tame Hellshadow cougar would be affected by her holy magic. She used Hallow for a few moments to test. The cougar caught on fire and tried to flee but Cless clamped down with her will and held it still. She tried to Purify it from the Infernal taint but it also wounded the cat even more. It could be healed. Cless noticed the messages from her contracts in Shane's guild to slow down and kept trying to clean the cougar but it either was impossible to cleanse or had an enormous amount of taint.

Without any other ideas, she ordered the cougar to take the lead and attack any monsters it found as they reached the boss room on the centipede side of the first level after three other fights with wounded monsters. She didn't fail to notice the monsters liked to stay near the few still-functioning air vents. Did these vents have any other function than ventilation?

"Shad?" Cless removed her pack and took the drillmole out. The critter yawned before blinking its eyes at her, clearly annoyed for being awakened. "Shad, is there something wrong with these vents?"

The mole walked to one such vent and sniffed the air around it.

"How does it make you feel?"

Cless took Shad away from the vent. It seems this miasma thing is something that makes monsters stronger and more aggressive. She used Purify on Shad and the crystalback drillmole calmed down. Its status had no change.

They reached the boss room, appearing to have the same shape as before. Cless used a Light spell to reveal one big, tall room. The tunnel they were at opened halfway to the arched ceiling full of natural formations and a ramp going down along the wall led them down to the room floor. Near the tunnel going out into the next floor, there was the boss monster, lazily writhing near the vent and breathing in the smoke that came out of it.

It was a wrigging amalgamation of two dozen giant earthworms, at least five meters long and with fanged maws at the point. It was... disgusting didn't even make it justice. She ordered the cougar to run down the ramp and attack it. Reluctantly, the monster obeyed. They ran after the cat, getting ready to fight after they had a glimpse of how that thing moved.

They were at the foot of the ramp when the cougar reached the boss and got to bite one of the inebriated worms before the whole thing started to flex and shoot around the cougar, biting it from the sides at once and devouring the critter. There was nothing left as the worm mouths seemed to suck in all of the cougar parts, even blood. After killing the cougar, it returned to the vent, either not noticing or ignoring the people at the ramp.

"I think we have to kill all the worms. Sever them," Silverfang growled in his deep werewolf voice.

"My sling will be useless. That flesh is too stretchy," Venaris added. "Maybe if we dump fireballs on it, it might do more damage as if the worms were a group of monsters."

"Good. I'll use the golem and grasping hands to pin the worms down then we fireball it to oblivion. Vic do you have any worm poison?"

"I'll stick to fireballs."

Cless summoned a granite golem and sent it ahead. She moved to put the worm in range and as the boss pounced the golem she used grasping hand to hold one of the worms to the ground. The monster stretched and slithered out of the hand's grasp, proceeding to clamp around the golem with a dozen worm-appendages and grind the stone creature while ignoring its punches. She was so surprised that the worm evaded the hand that easy she missed the first volley of fireballs.

Venaris hit first and her fireball covered most of the writhing mass of tentacles and the golem. It seemed she aimed behind the monster. Vic's on the other hand, went straight between the monster and the golem. The burst engulfed both creatures as the dozen worm mouths stopped grinding the granite to writhe and squirm in pain.

She started to cast her own Fireball and the boss monster glistened with some slimy mucus that covered it. The burn marks started to recover, losing its discoloration. Cless' fireball hit and was even bigger than the improved one Vic threw. Despite its potency, a hiss and a cloud of vapor or smoke rose and the worm was both dry and unscathed.

"Keep it up while the golem lasts!" Cless shouted and prepared another fireball. She could see Venaris and Vic trying to synchronize their spells and when she returned her gaze on the boss, it was already covering up itself in mucus. "Shoot!"

Cless held on her fireball and let the gnome and lamiak shoot first. Moments later she tossed her own fireball. This time she did full damage as the mucus cleared with the two fireballs that hit it first. The writhing boss monster tore chunks of granite from the golem. The third fireball volley marked the destruction of the golem. Then enraged and slightly burned boss tumbled and writhed in their direction.

With a howl, Silverfang howled a challenge and charged the boss, his claws gleaming under the Light spell Cless used to illuminate the cavern. Cless drew her sword, eager to join the lycan in combat and shield him when a feathered set of claws held her by the shoulder.

"Stay here and support brother Silverfang. I'm going to help him," Kurt said.

He leaped into the air and flew around the room as the werewolf clashed with the worms, weaving between the squirming mouthed tubes and slashing back at them. Silverfang took three bites, the worms latching to his fur. Each worm restricted his mobility and soon the fourth and fifth latched. Cless threw some holy bolts at the latched worms but the squirming tubes were moving too much. She cursed for not shooting at their relatively immobile core and desperate, ran forward.

She was halfway through the room when she felt entranced by the most beautiful song she'd ever heard. Cless stopped and dropped her sword, swayed by that marvelous tenor song. She stood there, in the middle of the boss room, enraptured until she was shaken by someone.

"Uh?" She took in her surroundings. A mass of big worms was on the ground, bits, and pieces of work everywhere in front of her. It was like the worms were thrown in a saw and the bits flung away. "What did?"

Silverfang was back in wolf form and Kurt was next to him, with a guilty face. "I told you to stay back, Cless." He defended himself.