We managed to collect what remained from his body and secure it with cloth, completely covering it up - we didn’t want any scavengers or insects to defile his remains, then we left it a bit further away from the harvested monster’s part along with a marking of the man that fell in combat.

We couldn’t stay longer and pay our respects because we were still in the middle of a dangerous zone. We cleaned our weapons, treated small wounds and scratches which appeared during the battle. Shieldbearer - the one that kept the beast occupied for most of the time checked that his shield was still usable, before giving a somewhat displeased nod and re-strapping it to his forearm.

Then, we dove deeper into the dungeon, this time honoring the procedure. Three guards were walking in a tight formation in front of us, then the four of us followed, having our backs protected by the other trio.

As soon as we moved into the next room, I heard a quiet, soft hiss coming through somewhere in a much deeper part of the dungeon.

“Halt!” yelled one of the leading guards.

The rest of our expedition froze in place, looking to the sides trying to spot any threat. They were nervously gripping their weapons in anticipation for combat.

And the man who stopped us? He kept on checking the map under a small orb of wandering light cast by the mage.

“This place… does not match with information that we were given.” he said, moving his eyes from the map to the room, and from the room to the map. “Were we sold fake maps?” one of the scavengers asked. “We didn’t buy these, they were made by our seniors during previous raids, and they are veterans - they would never put misleading data on their reports. “What does it mean for us…” another scavenger tried to address his concerns “... we are not a scouting group nor an attack force. We are meant to just find the corpses and strip them naked so…” “And how will you be able to tell which direction the attack group went if another tunnel suddenly appears?” the map-holding man quickly cut in.

The scavenger hesitated for a few moments.

“Well, in that case, they should have marked the tunnel which they chose, no?” “What if they didn’t mark it because they weren’t aware of the existence of the other one?” “Now you are just making stuff up! If they weren’t aware of the existence of other tunnels, they would just walk through the most obvious one - like… that one?”

A hiss from below resonated one more time.

The scavenger raised his finger at the tunnel’s entrance leading deeper below, the entrance was situated vis-a-vis the door-like structure through which we entered the chamber.

“Listen. Some dungeons have multiple sets of traps INCLUDING illusions!” “This is not an S-dungeon!” “IT’S NOT B EITHER! If it was B-rank, Joseph would be still alive! So unless you want to be the next person to die you will act like a fellow paranoiac, will ya? Better safe than sorry.” “Look, what happened with Joseph was but a tragic accident! Tragic - but an accident and..” “Why are you in such a hurry?” this time it was me who cut in. “Excuse me?” “Why are you hurrying us to keep on moving? The dungeon clearing would last, according to the plan, from one to three days. Our work is to follow the attack force whose job it was to slowly cut their way through toward the lowest level. Do you want to rendezvous with them? What for? To distract them? We can take all the time in the world to check for each and every trap, hidden chamber, treasure, or illusion - disarming traps, adding new rooms on the map, collecting goods, or securing a retreat path in case of random, unpredicted events - for all of that we would be paid extra. So what possible reason could there be in forcing us to resume our journey neglecting things that could save our lives?” I have tried to calm down situations trying to use logic. I didn't like the fact that we started getting heated up so much as well as the fact, that Scavenger was questioning the decisions of the group leader. There was no room for disobedience in the combat-situation. “Oh for fuck sake!...” he groaned “... if you want to waste hours watching stones, then go right ahead! But oh wait! We don’t have a scout!” “Mark, stop being such a cunt!” Mage joined the quarrel now. “Leave him alone!” the archer did as well. “Guys?” I looked at my ‘companions’ that apparently were about to jump at each other’s throats… for no particular reason. “Why are we even discussing this?! I have the highest rank and am the designated commander of this group! If I say that we will stay behind and check each and every fucking stone in this god's forsaken room, then you will fucking do it!!” shieldbearer with sergeant mark on his armor nearly spat out. “Maybe you aren’t quite fit for that role, don’t you think? I mean, you already showed what kind of skilled commander you are!” “What was that supposed to mean!?” “It means that Joseph would be alive if you could make people follow THE BLOODY PROTOCOL! Why did scavenger move first to the new room!? It’s your job! You should have told him to return back in the formation, and what did you do!? You watched him getting slashed into two!”

At this point, I was afraid that we were attracting attention from the creature from afar, for its hisses resonated more and more frequently.

“Guys, please, calm down! We are too loud, we might get in trouble…” I tried to reason with them.

A hiss resonated one more time, this time, it was as if it moved through my skull.

[User] is being targeted by [Lesser Word of Control: Anger], [Lesser Word of Control: Fear] Lesser Mind Magic Resistance is in use* Performing a defensive roll [1d20] ➝ [14] Defensive roll’s effect: Success

… What?

I started looking around, yet I was unable to find anything. Hiss echoed across the room one more time, only now I noticed that each time it could be heard the situation was getting more and more intense. I activated life sense, but, for the first time ever, I was unable to see anything - even the people in front of me. It had been a while since I used this skill - the last time I did, I saw spirits flying all around me. The good old witch had told me to avoid ‘seeing’ with magic, as magical creatures would start seeing me as well… but, good witch, I believe that this time my actions would be justified.

And so, I kneeled and… well, I wanted to say that I closed my eyes… but, you know… eyelids… yeah…

… and looked within myself, slowly pouring mana from myself into the environment around me.

And then I saw - the entire room seemed to be covered in a thin layer of magic, isolating it from the “outside” world. Looking at it now, there was no way that the sound which I had heard came from the “deeper” part of the dungeon. It meant that it was coming from here…

… but once again, I was unable to locate the source of it - it was blurred as if coming from multiple places at once. I had already met with such a phenomenon once before. It was a skill or spell - similar to that which Ghost used. Back in the day, he said that the voice is spread like a wave, in a semi cone, deforming as it objects on its way, this is how we could locate the source of it, but, that he was using a small trick which blurred the wave allowing him to turn his voice into a whisper coming from seemingly“nowhere”.

Shit! If I knew more about it, then maybe I would know how to dispel it!....

...dispel it…

… I am an idiot. It’s not a shame to not be able to do something - that’s why we are paired with people of different classes - to cover each other's flaws.

In the meantime, our team almost managed to start a fight, standing in front of each other, accusing one another of each and every crime on the earth, sky, and beyond. In a quick step, I moved towards the mage and patted his shoulder.

“The fuck do you want?!” I was nearly hit in the face with his staff. “We are being mind-controlled and whatever is playing with us, is here, hidden behind a layer of magic, can you dispel it?” “You think that I wouldn’t notice if…” here we go again. “Then can you please use a dispel, just to prove me wrong and shut my totally wrong face up?”

The man groaned, uttering “fineee” in such a tone as if this act alone cost him the firstborn and half of his remaining life.

Hitting the staff into the dungeon floor, he cited verses of a chant, letting out a small sphere of light which “pushed” the mist of magic away. Only for a short duration, but it was enough - for a few short seconds, I was once again able to see the redness of life, and except for my comrades, I was able to spot one, additional, small shape of life.

Moving quickly I approached that place and reached with my hand towards one of the pillars, and what I touched weren’t only stones and moss. I touched something made of flesh, long, relatively thin, and slippery.

Under my touch, the snake stopped it’s camouflage and reached towards my face trying to bite it, but hit nothing but my helmet.

Darratta Cobra - Mind Whisperer

Called by some [Demonic Snake] - this clever hunter uses more than just its potent venom to hunt. The creature is equipped with various mutated organs which slightly enhance their natural psionic skills.

Being one of very few "magical non-sapient" beasts, its organs fetch a nice price on the alchemy market - especially that illegal one.

Snake. As a human, I hated those slippery bastards. Hah, apparently at least one thing remained unchanged since the day I died. I watched it for a few more seconds, desperately trying to dig its teeth in me.

Oh, little one, if you would only know that I have no flesh that your fangs could pierce. That I have no bloodstream that your venom could infect.

Twist of a wrist and the monster's head was crushed.

You have gathered [Darratta Cobra - Mind Whisperer] essence [68] [903/1250] → [971/1250]

I turned back to my companions, who looked at me a bit dumbfounded.

“How are you feeling now?” I asked.

They respond only with nods, slowly calming down.

“I have a suggestion - though feel free to disagree… I changed my mind. We indeed should meet up with the main attack force and report about everything that is happening here to Captain Godric. That’s the second monster that they have missed. I doubt it's a coincidence. Something dragged us in, leaving monsters behind to cut us off…” “That… sounds like a plan. I prefer not thinking how many more of those stealth bastards are crawling around here.”

We wasted only a few minutes, regaining our peace of mind, clearing our thoughts, and resting a little bit before resuming our journey to the tunnel in front of us. And, as soon as we were passing the narrow portal-like tunnel’s entrance we noticed markings left by the attack force - a simple red arrow pointing into the deeper part of the tunnel. We were on the right path.

That did ease our nerves quite a lot, and with much lighter hearts we went further into the dungeon.

--------------------------

Several minutes after the adventurers had left the “room of whispers” part of the illusion around it disappeared. From the deepest part of it, a feral, bipedal lizardish monster descended. It was a bald humanoid, partly deformed and feral in appearance, still bearing feminine traits. It approached the corpse of its child, picked it off the ground, and pulled it to her chest. It started to weep quietly, lamenting its death.

It turned its angered gaze towards the tunnel through which the party of its child-killers had walked through, altering the illusion a little.

Right next to the tunnel, another twin-like the first one appeared, it also ‘beared’ the marking of a red arrow left by the other, much bigger group.

The arrow which fooled Aster’s group blurred and disappeared like a game of lights - illusion - that it was.

The mother-monster wasn’t strong, it couldn't fight like the rest of its children. But, that wouldn’t stop her from executing its vengeance. Knowing what kind of horrible fate awaits these child-killers helped her ease her pain if only a little bit.

The monster turned around and started crawling back into the room. As another part of the illusion was falling down before her, it revealed another hidden room from which dozens of hisses could be heard.

For not the Mother had to return, for SHE gave her other work to finish and HER words were absolute, even the Mother ruling a small hive on her own didn’t dare to oppose HER.

*Previously named LOW Mind Magic resistance. I decided to add more “mastery stages” to those