Lucas awoke to the sound of fighting.

It kind of sounded like Swords thumping on wood, thought Lucas groggily as he was waking up. With a start, Lucas realized it probably was swords hitting wood. Rose’s wooden robot shells!

“Rose, is everything OK?” questioned Lucas over the comlink as soon as he shoved the comlink into his ear.

No. Definitely not. The middle door burst open a few minutes ago and we have people coming through one or two at a time and immediately attacking my robots without any discussion. I’m having trouble waking anybody up. I can’t send the robots back to physically get you without letting the people attacking them through, and your comlink wasn’t in your ear, huffed Rose.

“I’m sorry Rose, what do you need.”

I need you to either get to the front lines and relieve a robot or wake up the others. I’m not going to be able to hold the entrance with the numbers coming through and the robot’s I’ve got. I’ve already had a robot completely destroyed and it’s just a matter of time before the rest go the same way. I’m honestly surprised you heard the fighting first. I know you slept in the entrance to give Brandy and Ralph privacy.

“I’m on it,” replied Lucas as he jumped out of his nest of blankets. Throwing open the door, Lucas started shouting at Brandy and Ralph. “Brandy! Ralph! We’re under attack.” Hearing the two begin to stir, Lucas continues rushing towards the line of robots.

Reaching the front lines, the first thing Lucas noticed was that two robots were now on the ground. The second thing that he noticed, was that the invaders were dressed like bandits. Lucas might consider them to have been dressed as pirates if they had all been on a ship, but since they were not, Lucas decided it was most likely they were just bandits.

“My good fellow’s,” said Lucas as he attempted to negotiate with them, “we do not need to fight. We are just looking for iron, copper, and other assorted metals. We can help each other.”

The bandits paused for just a moment before continuing the assault.

Lucas, I’m about to be down to two functional bots. If you are going to do something, you’ve got to do it now. Either that or grab Ralph and Brandy and run. The robots are replaceable, you are not.

Considering this, Lucas came to a decision. “Flames!” cast Lucas. As the fire cascaded over the bandits, they begin to retreat back through the door they came through. Before they could get through, Brandy and Ralph jump into the fray. Ralph blocked the door with his shield, and Lucas held his Flames spell until the Bandits slammed the door and sacrifice the few remaining Bandits to the flames.

Ralph leapt forward and threw himself against the door to guarantee that it stayed shut. “Brandy, would you heal up the robots and get ‘em on their feet again for this next fight. We’re in for a hard fight,” said Ralph.

“No problem, honey. I’ve got them,” replied Brandy.

“Well last night went well for two people,” stated Lucas under his breath. Continuing in a fashion which can be heard by more than just Rose, “Well, how many did you take out before you got overrun? How many do you think there are?”

I think the robots took out just a couple. But the bodies were dragged back into the mining area. There are probably at least 15 bandits total. I had eyes on 11 individuals, including the ones that were out of the fight. And I think you guys have a couple that you’ve put out of commission out here.

“With swarming bandits, I have no idea how the system thinks a group of level 5’s is supposed to beat this dungeon,” commented Brandy.

“It’s possible the bandits aren’t part of the dungeon. They may just be bandits,” replied Lucas

There is at least one safe way we know to check. Try and loot the bandit. If you can loot the bandit, it’s a mob, if not, it’s a person.

“Good plan,” said Lucas, followed swiftly by Lucas running over to one of the fallen bandits and a shout of “Loot!”

As the bandit dissolved into nothingness a loot bag was left in its wake.

Definitely a monster then. Maybe they will be easier to deal with inside of their mine wing.

“I doubt it,” said Ralph.

“We’ve got to try,” replies Lucas. “What time is it anyway? We all jumped up to fight, do we stay awake, or go back to sleep?”

It’s around 5 AM. You guys would probably have slept a few more hours, but you honestly may as well get started, I doubt any of you will fall back asleep.

“You underestimate how good I am at falling asleep,” laughed Ralph.

“Well, Rose is right in that I won’t fall back asleep. So, we may as well clear the Bandits and make the best of it,” said Lucas unenthusiastically.

“Ugh,” said Brandy. “Fine. But give me a few minutes, and maybe some coffee.”

30 minutes later, and the team was ready to attempt the gold and silver wing.

“Are we all clear on the plan?” asked Lucas.

“We are going to do this the same way we did the Spiders,” said Brandy in a questioning tone.

“Aye. Robots will protect our back while we slowly advance and grind away on the mobs. We advance slowly and safely until we reach the boss,” followed up Ralph.

I think we’ve all got it then. Good luck guys. I will position the robots as blocking forces as you advance.

Slowly the team entered into the gold and silver wing of the mine. The mine was well lit, with light coming from lanterns that lined the walls.

“Look at this,” shouted Ralph, running to a sparkling spot on the wall. “There is gold and silver seams running through these walls. Just… everywhere. No wonder there are bandits in here.”

“Holy Knight. That’s a LOT of gold,” replies Lucas as he pries a nugget of gold straight out of the wall with one of his daggers.

Continuing to walk down the mineshaft, they quickly see their first barrier. The bandits have gathered behind a thrown together barrier made out of wooden spikes.

Laughing, Lucas asked, “Are you ready guys?”

“Yup”

“Let’s go”

I’m ready.

As soon as Rose responded, Lucas cast “Flames!” on the wooden spikes. The wooden spikes quickly went up in flames, denying the bandits their fixed defenses and doing a little bit of initial damage.

Ralph quickly ran forward and waded into the bandits. His health quickly began to Yo-yo as the bandits attacked him, and Brandy healed him. But his health was mostly holding as the bandits attacked.

Brandy shouted to Lucas “Make your move now, I’m not sure how long I can keep him up with the intense assault.”

Lucas cast his self-buffs, then cast “Ice Bolt!” at one of the bandits that was wailing on Ralph. The ice bolt had trivial effect on the Bandit. “Flames!” quickly followed but there wasn’t a large effect on the bandit for flames either. Dismissing the Flames, Lucas uses Dash and races towards the bandits on the other side of the flaming barrier. Pulling out his daggers, Lucas backstabbed one of the Bandits as it hits Ralph.

As the Bandit fell, sparks shoot out of the hole the daggers made in the Bandit.

“They’re robots!” exclaimed Lucas. “That’s why my Ice bolt and Flames didn’t have a terribly large effect on them.”

Lucas, you need to make a water bolt spell. Maybe cast Ice Bolt and then Flames immediately afterward if you can’t get a water bolt spell worked out quickly.

“I don’t think I can pull off a water bolt spell right now,” said Lucas. “I will go with your other option. Immediately casting “Icebolt!” with one hand, and “Flames!” with the other.

“I got one,” exclaimed Lucas as he dodged an attack from a Robot Bandit.

“That’s great and all, but there are still three beating on Ralph, and my Mana is getting lower and lower,” shrieked Brandy.

Coming up behind another of the Bandits, Lucas shoved a knife into the area where a person would have a spinal column. The Bandit collapses to the ground, clearly wanting to fight still, but just as clearly having lost control of its limbs.

“Three down, two to Go,” shouts Lucas. His shouting causes the two remaining Bandits from this checkpoint to turn and look at him. As they do, “Boom!” Ralphs body checks one of the bandits with his shield into the wall, turning to the other, Ralph Swings his mace and knocks the head off the robot like a kid knocks a ball off a t-ball stand.

As soon as the last Robot was down, Rose cut in, Do NOT loot these bandits. If you do, the dungeon can make more. I want those resources. Drag them out into the main area. Toss them into the smelter if you must. Just keep them locked up until we can free up my robots to bring them back to me.

“That’s great Rose, but we’ve got at least 10 more Robot bandits hidden in this cave. Can we just leave them alone and let your robots drag them off somewhere as we advance?” Peeking down the hallway, Lucas continued, “It is, after all, a very linear dungeon wing. There is nowhere to go but forward.”

I can do that. But still, don’t loot them!

Brandy laughed at Rose and said, “Of course Rose, we will leave these robots to you. Who needs loot when we can pull gold and silver out of the walls with a dagger?”

Ralph spoke up, “I hate to break up the banter, but we’ve got robots to smash. We need to clear this wing before we do anything else. The other wings seem peaceful, but we will get attacked again if we leave this wing alone and we try and sleep.”

“OK OK, just give me a moment to try and get a water bolt spell.”

“A ball of water forms in front of my hand to shoot out at my enemies or those who mean harm to me. It will pass through my Allies without causing damage. The water will be generated from Humidity which is pulled from the air. The waterbolt will float in front of my hand until I close my hand to signal the release. The angle of the arm when my hand opens doesn’t matter. Only the angle when my hand closes. Waterbolt!”