Cless shook the confusion from Kurt's hypnotic song. Weren't they... the worm... oh.

"You killed it, didn't you?" She asked, feeling stupid for doing so.

"Silverfang did," Vic explained. "Kurt hypnotized the worms with his song and Silverfang killed them one by one. It seems they weren't a single creature."

She looked around and saw Venaris offering her sword back. She also kept hearing the messages regarding the Experience Shane's party was gathering.

"Well, Kurt did tell me to stay back," She sardonically stated. Putting the blunder behind her, she asked. "Any loot?"

"No, I don't think so," The gnome shook her head. "We didn't kill that many monsters. The other path should have many more."

Cless approached Silverfang to see if he was wounded. Not only he wasn't but his silver fur was shiny and spotless. She kicked a worm and it bounced off her feet and skipped along the floor. Very stretchy indeed. She picked up another piece and checked it. The burnt parts were even stretchier. It gave her an idea.

"Gather all the worms and put them in a pit. I'm burning it."

She molded a pit from the earth and they dumped the worm inside. Cless threw a fireball and as the worm started to burn, she covered the pit to smother the flames. After a minute she opened it and removed the stretchy and cooked skin of the worm, stashing it all in a Deeppocket.

"Silverfang, can you feel where Shane's guild is? Did they come this way?"

The lycan shifted back to werewolf and shook his head, "No. Too many monsters passed here, too much fighting and blood. It is all mixed."

She scooped Shad from near the boss vent and the drillmole protested.

"Miasma is not good for you. The thing will make you evil." She was not sure of that, but Cless wasn't going to take any risks. Until she knew the true nature of miasma, Shad wouldn't intoxicate himself with it.

"Down to the next floor or around to see the other boss room?" Cless asked. "I don't know if Shane's guild went down a floor. It gets harder the lower you go."

"Let's run and go around. They might've gone the other way because of the water source," Venaris pointed out.

They ran back and up through the slightly slanted tunnel. Now that the boss room was clear, the miasma was rising up the tunnel, probably enticing more monsters to come this way. If it reaches the surface, it might trigger the second migration as Josefine explained. They found more cougars and some lizard goats that were doing exactly that. Running down the tunnel to try and claim the boss room.

She didn't stop to skin the cougars, it would take too long. They returned to the fork and Cless left a golem there to beat any monsters that might have gone up on the path to the surface. The monster density increased sharply but their condition was pitiful. Some were even incapacitated amidst the bodies or on the hidden corners of the cavern-like tunnels. Too many hiding spots. They left none alive behind them.

Cless pulled up Shad's status. The drillmole reached level thirty-two. She thought it was too fast but she remembered that her class gave tame beasts of a lower level double Experience. She let him down and told him to finish any wounded monsters. It was somehow an act of mercy, to spare them from more suffering, she rationalized.

The Blind Eye guild reached the water feature Cless built before. The thing was crammed with the bodies of monsters piled up. The crevice that ran along the tunnel still had its air current but the skittering sounds of hard carapaced limbs walking on the stone were too much. They ignored the water and kept moving.

Reaching the second boss room on the first floor, they saw a battle royale taking place. A pride of hellshadow cougars, a flock of monitor goats and a pair of five-meter-tall bluish-white bears were going at each other's throats. Some faint Light spells lingered near the tunnel leading down, a sign of people passing through.

Assessing the fight, she saw that all groups were tired but none of them willing to relent the boss spot. That miasma vent should be really precious to monsters. The cougars went for the hit and run, using their numbers to try and make an opening. The bears were currently on top of the vent and in a better physical condition, but immobile. The lizard-goats were biding their time to probably pick on the wounded and tired winner of the fight.

It was too good an opportunity to get all these monsters at once to pass. And she doubted they would just let them go through. She raised a stone shelter for the guild and dumped all the protective buffs on herself. What she was about to do would very well damage them all the way back where they were. Cless initiated a Sacred Dance. If the monsters were taking their time, why wouldn't she?

During her dance she linked the spell she wanted to cast, paying the maximum of fifteen times the cost of it, or a hundred and twenty Power in the case of Fireball. Then she selected her targets. With her proficiency level, she could target up to thirty targets in a single casting. She marked every monster down there except some goats as they were the ones with the least offensive potential.

The ten-minute dance ended and she paid the final cost of the Sacred Dance itself, ten Power and showered explosive fireballs on the monsters. They detonated upon impact, with fractions of a second between each. The deafening sound of the explosions and the heat washed over her, eating her Bulwark entirely.

Charred lumps of monsters splattered everywhere around the cave and the aftershock of the explosions still rang in the corridors.

You cleared more than 98% of the monsters on the floor. Clear awards were already given in less than 72 hours. Miasma production doubled.

The bugs in the crevice they left behind should be the remaining two percent. They crossed the boss room and descended to the second floor. The ramp opened at the northeast wall of stone worked corridor going northwest and southeast, with a flat floor and flat stone-brick walls. The ceiling was three meters high and glowed with a soft yellow light. Again the bodies of monsters littered everywhere. There were a lot of cougars and smaller white bears. The pelts were ruined by scores of bite and claw marks.

They heard the sounds of combat from one side of the tunnel and pressed forward. Cless kept receiving these Experience messages every now and then so they were really still fighting. These dungeon corridors were not straight. Some of them snaked around in sharp turns and soon they reached a four-way crossing. Listening carefully a bit down each corridor, the sound was coming from two of them but in one it was stronger.

That meant this floor was a maze with more than one path to their target. They jogged ahead, paying attention to any surviving monster along the corridors. Whenever they found one, it was killed. Cless noticed she wasn't earning any Exp from them. Below thirty-four then. Doable for a large group. How are they holding? Maybe taking turns on the defensive.

They reached a bend of the corridor and the sounds of combat were just around the corner. Cless got an idea. She used Song of the Accord, hoping they were still within range. She lost a lot of power when she swapped the Priestess class for Beast Tamer. Not to mention the loss of nine hundred thousand Experience. She could be level twelve in her fourth-tier class already. The range of her spell, almost a hundred meters when she played the "Holy Maiden" in front of the inn, lost about thirty meters.

The members of the Blind Eye were now schooled in this tactic. Cless was drawing every monster in the range of her spell to herself and they stood ready to do the maximum amount of damage when the sanctified area dropped. But traps and other indirect attacks were not blocked by the spell. Vic threw several poison bolts down the corridor, converting them into a poisonous mist.

Soon the roars and growls of the monster horde neared in the tunnel, casting faint shadows on the wall as it blocked the light coming in from behind them. They should be crossing the poison cloud. Groans and grunts but the monsters didn't appear in the turn of the tunnel. More grunts and growls. After a few minutes of wondering what was going on, some bears came through. They were wobbling as if they were drunk.

"I used a paralytic poison," Vic explained.

She dropped the Song and tossed a fireball near the curve of the tunnel to hit on the other side. It blew the bears forward and probably finished the other monsters. Silverfang and Kurt charged the bears and clawed them to death. Still no Experience for her. But Shad just reached level thirty-seven with this fight. They moved down the tunnel and past the pile of charred corpses and finally found a large room with a barricade of debris on a corner.

Arnold was at the entrance to the barricade, holding guard.

They crossed the room, noticing how no less than eight other tunnels connected to it. The barricade Shane's guild erected was actually at the opening of a tenth tunnel. Lots of monsters gave the room a distinct stench of death. Down the corridors, Cless could hear even more monsters moving around. The stone brick floor was broken, scratched and singed in places. Blood stains and splatters could be seen on the walls, floor and even the ceiling. If it weren't for the Dungeon forced circulation of air to spread the miasma, Cless was sure this place would be unbreathable.

"Hey, Cless. Fancy seeing you here," Arnold greeted her.

She waved at him and sighed. Cless had a bad feeling that they wouldn't just pack up and leave. "I've come to pick you up but it seems you are doing just fine."

"It's been hard but rewarding work, can't complain," Arnold said with a friendly smile. "We got trapped in here when the horde came from the mountains but we've been fighting steadily for the last two or three days."

Cless was concerned, Arnold seemed tired and weary, just like when they fled through the canyon after a week of fighting. His armor was all dented and even punctured in some places. "Did anyone die?"

He shook his head. Soon Shane appeared from behind him. "Cless! How fortuitous to meet you here. What brought you?"

Shane didn't sound like the Shane from before. He was more outspoken and his face was harder to read. But Cless had little time to spare.

"The stampede, Shane. We have to get out of the dungeon." She replied with some urgency.

"We are good for at least one more week and nobody here is hurt. The monster waves that came our way were all dealt with. Why the hurry?" Shane seemed very confident.

"The stampede is going on the second stage. The big guys will descend from the mountain and kill everything in their path. We have to get out. Now."

"We've got a lot of good gear from the dungeon for clearing the first floor, thanks for the tip, by the way. We are trying to do the same with the second floor, cull some monster patrols, make it easier to go around, map the floor and find the boss room. We believe the rewards will be even better if we do a full clear of this floor."

Shane's body language told Cless he was not willing to leave. She knew that he should be going through a hard time with his guild. All the deadbeat folks with some aspirations at being a delver joined and he suddenly was leading a swollen guild with forty people. Then they went to fight the orcs and their prey became hunters, pinning them in that cave. He had over ten deaths, including Collin, and if Cless didn't come looking for them they would all be killed or enslaved.

Now he needed to show results, to give them something to be proud of. From what she earned of the two guild members, they should have gained levels like crazy. Shane should be in the early forties now, with the rest of his guild not far behind. If it were a normal situation, his ambition would pay off.

But there was one thing she could use to convince them.

"Shane, the floor boss will be of a very high level. I think it will be at least a level seventy monster at least."

She remembered how powerless she was against the orc-king-chimera. And if they were in the forties, that was exactly what they would be going through. Shane's answer left her to pick her jaw up fromm the floor.

"We can handle it. One monster against twenty delvers? Cless, I understand your concern, but we are not the same weaklings as before. We bought gear with the money from the orcs' weapons, we leveled a lot. Each one of my guild members gained at least ten levels since we entered here. Some want to go back to town only to select their third tier classes. I'm going to make it true for them, I owe them as much."

She felt flustered. Why couldn't they just understand a basic thing such as that?