There wasn’t much in the room besides slimes and slime, so they continued on. They walked through a narrow pathway and two rectangular rooms before arriving in front of yet another sliding puzzle door.

Teri immediately went to solve it, but a whoop of excitement echoed behind her. She turned around and saw Charles bouncing on the balls of his feet giggling like a noble’s daughter. The edges of Lyra’s mouth were fighting to stay straight as she was asking him what the depths made him so happy.

Charles yelled at the top of his lungs, “Spiders!”

The other five winced at his loud voice, but he continued on, “Not only that, but there’s an F- above the puzzle! There might be a stronger, more unique spider in there! Come on, Teri, hurry up and complete it!”

“I already would have, if you didn’t shout like a madman!”

After the door started to open, Charles piped up, “Make sure not to kill any and toss them to me!”

“Yeah, Yeah,” the other five responded.

The door finished opening, and darkness greeted them. Even though they were S+ rank adventurers, they had gotten used to the bright caves on the first two floors, and could only stare.

Franc was the first to snap out of it, “See anything, Duzzig?”

He shook his head before responding, “Maybe a couple of webs, but….”

“But?”

“I should be able to see more with my level of .”

A quiet laugh appeared at the back of the group, “Heehee.”

Franc, Duzzig, Peter, and Teri turned to look back. Lyra had her hand up to her mouth with a wide grin on her face, her unblinking eyes staring into the dark void of the room in front of them.

“I knew lights weren’t the only thing you could do, little dungeon. What else do you have in store for me? First this darkness, then what? Heehee.”

Charles sighed, having snapped out of his own excited, and shook her shoulder, “Okay, Lyra, focus on the dungeon.”

She stopped but pouted at him, “Hypocrite.”

Charles just shrugged his shoulders with a smile and summoned Ciel. The darkness would help him hide, and he had good night vision.

“Lyra, give us some light,” instructed Franc.

Small balls of light appeared around and in their party formation. They walked into the room. Immediately two spiders leaped at them. Franc and Duzzig just as immediately caught them and tossed them to Charles. He crushed one and captured the other.

“Ice spider, depths yeah.”

Only a minute after entering the room, they came upon a golden apple tree. Franc plucked them and tossed one to each member.

“Right, there were these,” said Duzzig between mouthfuls. “Could they support a town?”

“They would help,” began Teri, “but as long as danger surrounds them, harvesters would require soldiers or adventurers to protect them. That raises costs for both the harvesters and the buyers.”

“What if the Emperor provided soldiers specifically for that purpose?” wondered Peter.

“Doubtful,” muttered Lyra.

“It’s possible,” Teri raised her voice over Lyra’s. “However, with the war, I doubt he has the manpower.”

The continued discussing using the golden apples trees as a food source. The biggest argument, besides the first, being, who would want to harvest apples in a room full of spider webs. Eventually, they continued on.

The density of spiders was quite high, so that made it slow going, since they had to give every spider to Charles.

“Can I kill the ones I recognize?” asked Duzzig.

“No!” shouted Charles, “While there are some marking differences, a lot of them look very similar. Without or an intimate knowledge of spider monster types, it would be very difficult to differentiate them.”

“Fine.”

“Hey, Lyra, these light balls aren’t working great. Do you think it would be possible to dispel the darkness around us?” Franc questioned.

“I can try, but while it doesn’t seem like the deepest darkness, based on what this dungeon can do with light magic, I might drain myself of mana.”

“Then let’s wait until we clear this room, map the floor, and fight the boss before you give it a try. No reason to waste mana potions if we don’t have to.”

Lyra nodded and turned her attention to Charles, “Besides ice what new ones did you get?”

“Electric, lightning, poisonous, and pressure.”

“Pressure?”

“It’s an unusual attribute. When I caught it, even though I was holding it by the top, it felt like it was still attacking me. I read through its skill list, and may be the cause.”

The two of them discussed the rest of the spiders as Charles kept catching the new ones tossed at him. However, most were simply squished in his hand or tossed to Ciel to munch on.

Soon after, Peter called the party to stop. Franc was also in the middle of raising his hand to stop the party. They both smirked at one another before Franc spoke first.

“The web in front of us looks almost molten.”

“I detected a sudden spike in danger, enough to cause some harm,” added Peter.

“Lyra, use some of your metal to cut the web,” ordered Franc.

“Of course,” she replied.

A metal disk flew around cutting the edges of the glowing red spider web. As it fell to the ground, it started hissing and steaming.

A spider had also scurried over to see what was going on. It noticed its missing web, and raised its front legs in scare tactic against the intruders. When that didn’t work, it leaped, like the rest of its brethren, towards them, sealing its fate.

When Charles appraised it, he whooped in joy, “A Magma Web Spider! Ascension! It can create webs made of magma! It also has heat and melting resistance.”

“I think all of us could have guessed its ability to create webs made of magma,” joked Peter.

A quick laugh and the group moved on. They soon came across a treasure chest. It was filled with stone coins, a couple of iron coins, and even a brass coin.

Near the treasure chest was a heat spider that Charles started to giggle over.

As they walked through the floor, encountering some large rocks, more golden apple trees, and a plethora of spiders, they noticed a large skittering coming in their direction. They pulled out their weapons, and prepared their spells. The only difference being Lyra’s wall of metal was less dense and leisurely rather than a tornado.

Scuttling across the webs in front of them was a bulbous spider with scythes for its front legs. Rather than leap at them like the rest, it turned its butt towards them and sprayed silk.

“It’s not normal silk!” yelled Peter.

Franc swung his sword blowing the silk, webs, and spider in front of them away. The spider struggled on its back before flipping over and dashing towards them.

Once it was in range, Charles informed them, “Poisonous Scythe Spider, F- rank.”

With that, Duzzig placed his axe in his belt and shield on his back. Using his two gauntleted hands, he grabbed the spider and held it in place.

“Ready, Charles?”

Charles jogged forward and turned the spider into a ball as soon as he was within reach.

“If that was similar to the split jelly, there should be a treasure around here right?” questioned Peter while rubbing his hands together.

“Probably,” Teri added.

“Where are we in the room and where do you think the treasure will be, Peter?” asked Franc.

“Based on the curve of the wall, we’re close to the other side of the room. If I was the dungeon, I’d place the reward for slaying the more difficult monster in the center of the room.”

“Right, then let’s….Peter?”

“Yeah?”

“You said we’re close to the other side of the room right?”

“....Yeah?”

“Let’s just give the other side a quick look before we go searching for that treasure chest.”

“Alright,” said Peter extending his words, “you’re the leader.”

The party continued on to the other side of the room from where they entered. As they got closer, they noticed a door. A little closer they noticed it had a picture on it. Even closer and they noticed it was an array of pictures in a circle. The boss door.

Franc just stared at the door for a couple minutes before finally speaking, “I’m not mad, I’m disappointed.”

Peter started laughing but began coughing at a sharp glare from Franc.

“I suppose I expected too much from a dungeon that gave advice on the monster ranks in a floor, but in the end, a dungeon’s a dungeon.”

Franc had a scowl on his face as he turned around and ordered, “Let’s look for that treasure.”

They marched to the center of the room on Peter’s direction, but rather than a treasure chest, they found another hole puzzle.

“‘Name a skill from the sub-boss in this room’,” Charles read.

“Sub-boss? This doesn’t give the feel of a sub-boss room,” muttered Franc.

“It might not be, but that seems to be what the dungeon considers its above average difficulty monsters.”

“You remember its skills?” asked Duzzig.

“Yep,” replied Charles.

After a correct answer, a sizeable number of mana stone appeared in place of the question and rolled off of the rock.

Teri squatted over them, “G, G+, and F- rank stones. All poison attribute.”

“Not a lot of things use poison,” grumbed Peter.

“Not a lot of dungeons produce poison attribute mana stones, so they’re not worthless. Also, says the guy who poisons his own daggers.”

“Yeah, but I coat mine in actual poison. They’re not enchanted daggers.”

“It seems the treasure chest wasn’t here, Peter. Unless, the hole puzzle was the treasure chest equivalent for this room?” Franc asked.

“It’s possible, as we only have the one other sub-boss to go on. However, dungeons generally keep things the same. At least, for the same floor….” he trailed off. This dungeon wasn’t exactly normal.

“If there’s a treasure chest, then we’ll find it as we explore the rest of the room.”

With half of the room cleared, they began back up at the entrance of the room and started making their way through the other half, towards the boss door. Around another golden apple tree, Duzzig tossed two spiders back to Charles. Neither were squished as he stared intensely at them. Slowly his mouth twisted into a grin and he began to breath heavily.

Even Lyra, who didn’t have as many problems with Charles’ oddities, looked at him askance, “Stop acting like a pervert.”

Charles twitched at that and turned to Lyra, “I’m not a pervert! These spiders have multiple attributes!”

She instantly spun towards him, marched over, and leaned over to stare with intensity towards the two spiders.

“These tiny, weak things have multiple attributes?!” she hissed.

“I know right!”

“This dungeon must be great at magic if it can create a balance in these spiders.”

The two shivered and smirked at each other before Franc interrupted them, “You two can orgasm about magic later. We need to finish this floor and fight the boss.”

They looked sour but got back in proper formation.

About halfway through the rest of the room, they found two treasure chests sitting close to one another. One opened easily and revealed a wooden halberd, but the other was locked tight.

“It’s stone,” muttered Peter, “so maybe it’s the treasure chest for the sub-boss, but it’s still locked.”

“You don’t see anyway to unlock it?” asked Teri as she helped him examine the chest.

“Nope.”

“If Peter can’t see anyway to unlock it, then we’ll continue on,” stated Franc.

The party started to walk away from the chest, but as they did so a loud click echoed throughout the room. All of their heads turned to look at the chest. Franc nodded at Peter, who walked over the chest, gave it a once over, and tried pushed the lid off. Unlike before, the lid easily fell off. An iron mace with ten uses of hardness appeared.

“Why did the chest suddenly unlock?” whispered Lyra.

“....Oh!” exclaimed Charles, “What if the sub-boss had to be killed for the chest to unlock? We didn’t kill it, I just captured it.”

“The dungeon reacted that quickly? And why would it change the unlock requirements?” mused Franc, “Sure, dungeons change in response to adventurers, but only a minute after we noticed the chest wasn’t unlocked? That’s odd.”

“We all know this dungeon’s odd, Franc, you don’t need to point it out again,” Teri jokingly chided him.

“I know, but….” he stopped at the rest of the group was grinning at him, “....right, I can do that later. Let’s go then.”

Dungeon Reconnaissance saved the boss fight for last and explored the rest of the floor. They came across four more puzzle rooms where the prizes consisted of three swords, two iron and one wood, with flame, hardness, and sharpness enchantments. The last one, Duzzig had a go and intentionally answered wrong. After a quick shock to his system, they learned that the puzzle didn’t work after answering wrong.

On the only unexplored path from the slime room, they came across another sub-boss room. Charles, with the help of Ciel’s shadow walk ability, snuck up on the split slime and captured it. Obtaining a iron sword with ten uses of sharpness, finally started the debate that should have started with the iron mace and its ten uses of hardness. Was a crappy bow with a great enchantment or an okay weapon with an okay enchantment better? They each had their own opinions, and only stopped arguing after Franc told them to shut up.

Peter had been the first to notice as there was a large, empty space on his map. On their way back from the entrance of the floor, they arrived in front of a sliding door puzzle.

“Considering how linear this floor is compared to the last, I’m surprised we missed a whole room,” nodded Peter. “Can you tell what it is without Teri completing the puzzle, Charles?”

“I think all of us can see that it’s a bird of some kind. Although, based on the shape of the wings, it might be a swallow.”

“Birds in caves, that’s a bit more unusual,” mumbled Teri as she started moving the picture pieces around.

“And more dungeon like,” added Lyra.

“True, this dungeon’s use of creatures that would fit in a normal cave system is quite unusual,” agreed Charles.

“Are you all forgetting about the golden apple trees? You don’t find those every day in caves,” argued Duzzig.

“Yeah, but, before the spider room on this floor, we only saw one.”

“So, why didn’t you mention their unusual nature in the spider room?”

“....It didn’t come to me then.”

Teri just chuckled as the two of them argued over something she was the first to bring up. With a click, the puzzle was finished and the door opened.

A wide open room appeared. Nests of light covered the walls, lighting up the room. Streams gurgled down the walls and across the room into ponds. Swallows glided across the room from hole to hole. Mosquitoes and flies buzzed. Dragonflies darted. Butterflies hovered. And in the distance a tree could be barely made out, with a faint noise coming from its direction.

“Looks like we saved the biggest room for last,” announced Peter with a wave of his hand.

“It’s not that much bigger than the spider room,” countered Charles. “In fact, the shape of the room might make it seem bigger.”

“It doesn’t matter how big the room is, we just need to explore it,” finished Franc.

As they started walking, Charles informed them, “Make sure to kill the flies and mosquitoes, but especially the flies. They’ll lay their eggs in you.”

Teri’s arm twitched to her space bag, but Lyra placed a hand on her shoulder and shook her head. She pouted, but didn’t take out her flamethrower.

As their march led them to the center of the room, they dispatched dive bombing swallows and found a treasure chest. Once they reached the outer edge of the middle pond, the faint noise coming from the golden apple tree erupted into a screeching. A dull pain shot through each of their heads.

Duzzig was the first to act. He slammed his axe and shield together and shouted, “Dome of Silence.”

A thin film covered the party in the shape of the dome. The dull pain resounding in their minds went away.

“Thanks, Duzzig,” said Franc as he patted the dwarf on the back.

“It’s my job,” he smiled back.

“Charles?” continued Franc.

“Screeching Cicada with a level three .”

“Most of us have level one mental resistance while Duzzig has level two. This could be a good place to train mental resistance. Although, most don’t train it because having something invade your mind is not enjoyable.”

“Any who don’t have mental resistance will find this room tough,” added Peter.

“If it’s level three, then we should practice ours too,” Lyra pointed out.

“For now, after Charles captures one, let’s kill them, so we don’t have to deal with a dull pain throughout the rest of the room,” finished Franc.

They rushed out of Duzzig’s Dome of Silence and sliced each one in half while Charles grabbed the closest one and captured it.

With the cicadas out of the way, the rest of the room was smooth sailing. Another treasure was found, the hole puzzle was easy, and the only other monster in the room was the wet fern.

The group started walking towards the exit, but Lyra was staring at a flytrap plant as they walked by, “Hey Charles. I saw you capture one earlier, but what’s this one’s name? It’s at the tip of my tongue.”

“That? It’s an Ehla Flytrap. You must of seen some in a church.”

“Oh yeah! Do you think they’ll want some from the dungeon?”

“I don’t know, I’m not a big church goer.”

Franc interjected, “It won’t be profitable, but the Church always puts out requests when one of their plants die.”

“That means Church Points! Way better than money,” Duzzig yelled back.

“Is not being a big church goer the reason you didn’t get your eye regenerated, Charles?” Franc asked.

“Nah, they said it’s cursed and can’t be regenerated, but thankfully this one,” he tapped his eye, “can see just as well.”

The other five glanced at each other as they burst out laughing. Their roars only confused Charles.

Lyra hugged him, tears forming in her eyes from laughing, “Sorry Charles, but it’s just all these years, none of us asked about your eye because we thought it was a taboo subject, but you answered so easily.”

Charles joined in their laughter and shook his head, “I told you guys about my scars, why wouldn’t I tell you about my eye?”

“An eye’s something that most get regenerated, so we assumed not a topic of conversation,” said Peter as he wiped his eyes.

“All of you are big fat idiots.”

They just laughed harder.

While joking with one another, the reached the boss door. The mushroom section of the door was glowing.

Duzzig started flipping a coin in his hand, “Want to try this?”

He held up a stone coin with the relief from the first floor boss door on one side and a skull on the other.

“Doubt it will work. Something that lets us choose the boss on all floors by defeating all the bosses on the first floor is too great a reward,” shot down Peter.

“Doesn’t hurt to try though,” said Duzzig as he walked up to the door. The glowing section of the door persisted on the mushroom section no matter how long he stood holding the coin to the door.

He sighed, “Damn, if the special boss is the same, those mushroom men are a tough fight without Teri’s flamethrower.”

“Since we can’t change the boss, here’s the plan,” Franc started. “Lyra will use a giant, spinning razor to slice the first boss in half, one-shotting it. If the special boss is the same as the first floor, then we will attempt fighting it without Teri’s flamethrower. Teri, during the fight make sure the number of mushroom men doesn’t exceed five. If the special boss is something new, especially something new and more powerful, then we’ll put all our effort towards protecting Teri while she burns the shit out of it. Ready?”

“Ready!” they all yelled.

With that they walked into the boss room.

The door closed behind them and bulbs of light sprouted from ground. They sprouted into mushroom caps across the room, and at the far side of the room was a five foot tall mushroom standing on two legs. It had no arms or eyes, but a wide mouth crossed most of its body.

Lyra’s flying metal had already formed together and was spinning at high speeds. With a thought the spinning metal bisected the mushroom man. Two vertical halves fell to the side and disappeared.

“Get ready!” shouted Franc.

The metal saw flew back, split apart, and stormed around the party forming a protective barrier. Using some of her metal, Lyra formed a lightweight metal armor around herself, becoming a metal maiden.

Teri had her flamethrower prepped and ready to go at anytime. She also had a one handed pistol at her side to help with the normal fight.

Peter calmed himself and let his mana take over his body. His innate attribute amplified his unique skill allowing him to feel minute changes in danger throughout the room. He also glazed his daggers in plantfire oil.

Ciel, the black panther, Nielfor, the dread cockatrice, and Lioric, the silver gryphon had already been removed from Charles’ tamer home prior to entering the boss room. Ciel was prepared to guard the backliners, while Nielfor and Lioric prepared their attacks for a barrage the instant the mushroom man spawned.

Duzzig’s entire body bulged and his armor and weapons were covered in dim light.

Wind armor formed around Franc’s body, and a storm of wind blades formed around his greatsword.

The perky light mushrooms withered and hissed as mouths full of rotten teeth appeared all over them. And across the room formed a ten foot tall mushroom man. It was a dirty white color, its cap drooping over its abyss, black eyes. No mouth was present between its deceptively thin arms.

As soon as it appeared, a storm of metal blades, wind blades, and fire shots enveloped it. Chunks of mushroom flew out from the storm and splattered into the surrounding walls.

Teri quickly counted the number of chunks, eleven, and pulled out her flamethrower, “Hurry, before they grow!”

The party rushed towards the closest chunks and were able to burn four of them. However, seven, ten feet tall mushroom men now stood in the room. In a blink all seven of them had rushed forward and began punching Lyra’s metal storm, denting it. Their hands were torn off, but were quickly grown back. One of them was unlucky enough to receive the entirety of Teri’s flamethrower and melted into nothing. Six remained.

The mushroom men backed off slightly, which allowed the party to shift their formation into the correct position.

Franc nodded at Duzzig who stepped forward out of the metal storm.

He focused on one and yelled while banging his shield with his axe, “Come get me you toad brain!”

It shivered and rushed at Duzzig. It pulled back its arm and smashed its fist into his shield. The impact sent Duzzig flying several feet back into the party formation onto his butt. However, the mushroom man was now within range. Teri let loose as fire covered the repositioning mushroom man who flailed as it burned to nothing. Five left.

The mushroom men had seem surprised by the other one running off and were now looking at one another. They nodded to the one at the end who reached for its arm.

“Rush!” shouted Franc.

The party sprinted toward the group of five.

The fifth mushroom man ripped its arm off and threw it away, while the other four attempted to back off. As they did so, one started turning to stone, another had it’s legs ripped off by a sneaking Ciel, and the other three were taunted by Duzzig, who had sweat pouring down his face. Now in position, Teri used her flamethrower to burn every piece of them.

With the last remains smoldering, Franc turned to Lyra, “You get it?”

“Yep, caught it with some blades. Once they’re in small enough pieces, they don’t sprout mushroom men anymore.”

The loot appeared in the ashes of the five mushroom men, and Duzzig fell to his butt, “Shit, those things hit hard.”

“You need a potion?” asked Lyra.

“Yeah, can’t move my arm very well. It’s not broken, but something definitely tore.”

She took a red potion out of her bag and handed it to him. He took it before handing it back, “It’s not that bad.”

“Better safe than sorry,” she ordered.

He growled, “I’ve taken enough potions to know what kind I need, Lyra.”

“Fine, medium then,” handing over a pink potion. This time Duzzig gulped it down without complaint.

The others were picking up the loot and checking out the completion window.

“Good job ignoring my orders Teri. They looked like they were going to grow as many mushroom men as possible,” Franc thanked her.

“You’re welcome. But why did their fighting pattern change so much? Last time when it split for the first time, it never split again. No matter how much damage we did to them, they didn’t intentionally create more.”

Franc considered it for a moment before turning to Charles, “Were they the same monsters as last time?”

“Yeah, so I don’t know either.”

Franc sighed, “Looks like it’s something we’ll have to think about later.”

With that the three of them went back to examining loot.

“It seems like we got a higher percentage of treasures than we did the first run through of the first floor,” recalled Peter.

“We’ll look at that thing later,” snapped Franc. “They have their first floor to play around in, so we won’t be filling that out until we reach the dungeon core. Once we get to the next entrance room, we’ll rest for a bit and then head to the third floor.”

“Okay,” everyone shouted back.