Chapter Eleven

John, Camille, and Sam entered the dungeon just after noon. John was leading with his weapons drawn. Camille was protected in the center while blocking off the mana pressure and providing light, and Sam was covering the back. They started off by sprinting across the narrow ledge to avoid the fish and managed to get behind the waterfall without any issues. John looked at the flowers, hoping they would have time to harvest some, but all of them were unfamiliar. He was about to harvest one so they could bring it back and have someone figure out what it was, but before he could Sam yelled at him to stop. John turned back and asked “What's wrong?” and she responded “I’m not sure we should be messing around with the new flowers. I don’t recognize the one you were about to pick, but that one over there is nightshade, and the one a bit further in is black death. I wouldn’t be surprised if all these new flowers are poisonous.”

John stood back up and said “Have you heard of dungeons adapting that quickly? All the ones I explored back home never adapted to anything this quick.” Both women shook their heads, and Sam said “ I haven’t heard of any dungeons adapting this fast. We will just have to be extra careful.” They advanced slowly despite not seeing any threats, and made good progress until they stopped in front of a pile of leaves. The party stopped and John said “I think we may have just run into our first trap. Unless you all know of a cave tree that I haven’t heard of.” Camille looked at the pile of leaves warily and said “I haven’t been in many dungeons but aren’t traps supposed to be less obvious? You’d have to be a toddler to fall for that.” John responded “That’s just because the dungeon is still learning. It probably just thought of traps after you guys came in last week. Without any people to test them it won’t know good ways to hide them.” After saying that he reached out with his sword and started to sweep the leaves away. It didn’t take long for them to find that the leaves had been covering a pit. It was filled with stone spikes that looked wickedly sharp and was deep enough that most people would need help getting out.

They walked around the edge of the pit and continued forward. They did not meet any obstacles for a while but there was something that did catch Sam's attention. She examined the walls as she asked “ Do these walls look less natural than they used to to you?” Camille shook her head and John asked “What do you mean?” Sam responded “When we came the first time this still looked similar to a natural cave. Now it looks like someone planned it. I mean look at that.” John looked where Sam was pointing and saw a shadowy alcove hard to make out from more than a few feet away. “Does that look like a natural cave formation to you? Cause it doesn’t to me.” John said “Huh, I guess you’re right. Should we just keep moving while making sure to watch out for the alcoves.” Sam said “Sure” and the continued marching through the dungeon. Strangely, they didn’t come across any monsters defending the dungeon no matter how far they went. The only reason they stopped was because they came across something strange. It was what appeared to be another entrance to the dungeon. There was a stone archway with bright light shining through it. It looked just like there was a hallway made of rough stone covered in vines leading to the outside.

They talked about what to do for a while and decided that they must have missed something. They turned around and started checking every single alcove carefully. When they were halfway back to the start of the dungeon they found what they had missed. Hidden in one of the alcoves was an extremely small staircase. Each step only went up about two and a half inches and the whole staircase was only two feet wide. It led up to a hole in the ceiling with plants coming down out of it. They paused again and started consulting each other. John said “I know I might be starting to sound like a broken message stone, but don’t normal dungeons go down? Why is this one leading up?” Sam responded “I’m not sure, but I saw we go up there and find out.” John agreed saying “ Alright. You two cover down here I’ll climb up and then give you the all clear.” Before they responded he grabbed the foliage dropping from the hold and started to pull himself up. He looked around, but didn’t see anything other than plants so he called Sam and Camille up as well.

They explored the floor cataloging the plants as they went. They didn’t recognize most of them, but they appeared to be mainly subspecies of ferns and moss. They kept walking through the surprisingly jungle-like floor until they reached another hole in the ceiling. They looked around a bit more to make sure that there wasn’t anything important they missed, and then John climbed up plants into the ceiling again. As he got up he saw that the floor didn’t only have plants this time, it was also covered in pools of water. They were large pools connected only by small channels and they dotted the entire floor. John could see that plants were growing in the water and it was calm so he called Sam and Camille up again. They looked around the floor but were disappointed to find that the plants were similar to the floor below. They realized that the only difference lay with the plants in the pools so they walked over and examined those more closely. As they got closer Sam got excited and started to move towards the edge of the pool. She reached in and grabbed the flower floating in the pool and started to carefully remove it. Just as she reached a critical point in harvesting the flower John saw a fish swimming in the pool. He grabbed her by the shoulder while yelling at Camille to get down and threw them both to the ground just in time to avoid a flood of fish flying out of the pool.

They had dodged the entirety of the first wave, but this time there were far more fish than before. John activated his earth rune, grabbed his pack ready to use it as a shield, and turned to Sam and Camille to make sure they were getting ready to make a break for it. He looked around the floor and saw that the fish were sliding along the shallow water filled channels throughout the room to get back into their pools. That made the decision not to wait even easier, so he got up and shielded Sam and Camille while they dashed for the hole. He managed to keep his backpack between himself and the vast majority of the fish, but even then they still hurt like a bitch. He ignored the pain and kept blocking the fish until Sam and Camille were both at the lower floor, then he made a break for it. He held his backpack over his head and sprinted for the hole. He got hit but managed to keep running. Soon he was close to the hole and dove through. He put his arms out to keep from hitting his head on the stone and braced for impact, but to his surprise he hit something soft. He looked up and saw that he had landed right on Camille. He tried to think of a joke, but nothing good came to mind so he just said “I think that's enough exploring for today.”

They trudged out of the dungeon, only rousing their energy near the end when they needed to sprint across the last ledge and exit the dungeon. Once they made that dash they all laid down and rested. It was silent for a while, but before long John turned to Sam, saw the flower she picked from the pool, and asked “Why do you recognize all these flowers?” Sam snorted as she responded and said “Why don’t you? They are all valuable and we were all supposed to be trained to recognize valuable plants before coming out here.” John responded “you actually paid attention in those classes? All those plants are so rare I thought it was pointless to waste my brain on trying to remember them.” He paused for a second and groaned as he got up before continuing “ We better start heading back to camp now. I think I’m due for a trip to the healers and hiking in the dark might make it difficult to get there quickly.” Sam and Camille grumbled a bit about not getting enough rest, but they both quickly got up and started to walk towards camp. As they were leaving Camille saw the bruises starting to come in John's arms so she joked to try and make him feel better “Thanks for the help with the fish back there. If we do give you an interview we’ll be sure to take your utility as a shield into consideration.”

Gem

The gem watched quietly as the invaders came back for the first time since It had updated its defenses. Since it wanted to test out its new defenses the gem decided to let the invaders enter into its territory and see how well its new tactics worked. The first thing the gem noticed was that one of the invaders almost poisoned themselves on the deadly flowers it left at the entrance. Unfortunately it stopped right before picking it, but the fact that the invaders almost fell for it gave it hope that others would.

The next thing the gem watched them come upon was one of its spike pits. Despite being entirely hidden under the leaves, it seemed like the invaders knew it was there. They poked and prodded until they could see the pit and then they just walked around it. After that the gem observed the invaders for a little while longer, but didn’t get much more useful information. It called for its wolves and sent them to put on their armor, but then the invaders turned back when they reached the entrance to its valley. Thinking that they were leaving anyways the gem called off the wolves and watched them go. Unfortunately,that wasn’t actually the invaders plan. Instead of leaving they went into the alcove hiding the route to its island and started to explore upwards.

They got into one of its mana production rooms that was filled with plants, but they seemed to ignore all of them. They didn’t pick a single plant and left the room to go higher after a brief survey. They got to its next room and started exploring it as well. This room had fish as its defenders, but the gem wanted to observe them a bit more before it drove them out. It watched them look around the room and then to its surprise they walked straight up to one of its fish ponds. The gem directed the fish to start gaining momentum and be ready to strike from the bottom of the pool, but kept watching to see why the invaders approached that pool. It watched one of the invaders lean over the pool and grab one of its plants, and then it told its fish to strike.

The invaders reacted quickly avoiding the first wave of fish, but they were going to have to move to avoid the fish attacking. One of the invaders stood up and blocked the fish while the other two fled to the lower floors. Once two of the invaders had reached the lower floors the last one made a break for it. It was hit by a number of fish, but was able to ignore that and keep going. He dove down to the lower floor so the gem ordered the fish to stop and then watched them go. It had its fish ready to go at the entrance of its territory, but they were quick enough to exit to avoid them.

Once the invaders were gone the gem started to think about what it had learned. Its wolves had taken too long to get their armor on. If the gem wanted them to use it in the future it would have to find a way to get it on faster. It also realized that the spike pits needed to be hidden a different way. It seems like the invaders expect traps under leaves. The last thing it thought about was its plants. The gem really wanted to figure out which plants were useful as bait so it could set traps. The invader going for the plant despite it being in a fish pool proved that Mav had been right about ambushing in plain sight. The invaders would have been taken out for a single plant if they were any slower. The gem kept thinking about all these things and worked on improvements while it waited for the invaders to return.