James stared up at the ceiling and tried to ignore what Liam was doing. No matter how much he tried, it soon began to wear on him. “Stop that would you?” James said as Liam caught the blade again.

“Sorry. Just bored.” Liam said grumpily. He had been tossing one of his knives up and trying to catch it by the blade repeatedly. It probably would have been a very dangerous game had Liam not had [Thick Skin], but as it was, it was just a very repetitive noise.

“Eh, it's fine I guess,” James said in a way that made Liam think it was very much not fine. “It’s just stressing me out, you know? The hole…” His words faded out as both looked down the deep shaft near their makeshift camp. They had decided to rest and try to sleep some before they went any deeper. The problem was that, despite the excitement and exhaustion of the day, neither of them was tired enough to sleep. They had been laying near the hole for close to two hours but that still meant that they had only been awake for maybe ten.

“I just wish I had brought my skill books or something,” James said while poking the illusory fire with the butt of his hatchet, watching the flames distort into motes of smoky light.

A grunt was the only response Liam gave as he took out another piece of smoked meat and chewed on it. They had gotten rather frustrated with each other as they had laid here waiting for sleep to take them.

“Could you put out the fire again? I think I might be able to fall asleep this time.” Liam asked.

“How about this?” James asked while jumping to his feet in excitement. “I think I have an idea.”

“What?” Liam replied testily. James' last idea had been pushups and sit-ups till they had gotten their daily quest rewards. He had been excited to find out about that, but the whole experience had still been extremely painful with his injured side.

Waving his hands, James suddenly was carrying a practice wooden sword in both of his hands. “You said you have a sword skill, right?”

“Yeah?” Liam said warily.

“Well, I have a skill that lets me learn skills from other people. Could you teach me?” He asked while handing Liam the handle of one of the rough wooden swords.

“Sure, but I’m not going to go easy on you. I’m grumpy, I hurt, and I want to hit something.” Liam said while raising his bulk painfully to his feet.

“Ok…” James replied with obvious concern. “Just remember I have way less HP than you... Please?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m not gonna kill you.”

“Oh, good.”

The sparring went maybe thirty minutes before James was covered head to toe in welts and bruises.

“Ok, OK! Enough!” James said dispelling the swords from both their hands. He looked at the large man in front of him who now was grinning sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head with one of his giant mitts.

“I might have gone too far, sorry. But I feel way better.” He said smiling.

“I’m so glad,” James said testily. He wouldn’t have put up with it for so long if it hadn’t been getting him so much experience. Each time he parried correctly, or made a successful lunge that contacted Liam, he had received 4 or 5 EXP, while getting hit was only worth 1. Even still, he was now better than halfway towards getting the skill and had made progress towards his next student level.

Liam sighed contentedly as he lowered himself back onto his damaged sleeping roll. “Ok, for real now, I think I might actually fall asleep. Could you put out the fire?”

“Sure,” James said as he gingerly lowered himself into his sleeping blanket. Something weird was happening to the polymer covering of the bag. It seemed like some kind of dry rot or heat damage, but it had made the fabric brittle and it had even split in some places. He assumed it was from experiencing the brunt of his steam but he didn’t know. He took one last look at it and shrugged as he dispelled the fire and quickly fell asleep.

A great storm-tossed his small boat about in the waves. He had long since lost the oars that had used to steer the boat and now he simply clung to the hull as wave after wave crashed over him.

“Can’t… Dungeon… Prepared… You fool!”

Disjointed words like this crashed over him seeming to be as much a part of the storm as the waves around him. They came from the storm, from the wind, even from the waves as he clung to the small vessel in the chaos. Part of him recognized the voice to be the voice of his mentor, but that part of him was small compared to the tempest within and without him.

“Wake up! Wake up, James! It’s just a dream.”

He felt the hand roughly shaking him and the words entered his head, but for a moment it was still just wind and waves.

“Gah!” He exclaimed and sat bolt upright in the darkness. As he did so he felt his head come into solid contact with something above him. The strike was hard enough that it set his ears ringing and he thought he had felt his skull crack on whatever he had hit. That thought was confirmed when he felt the wetness on his scalp.

“Damb! I dink du boke by doze.”

“What?” James replied with mounting concern. He quickly created the illusion of a torch in his free hand as he felt the rising goose egg on his head with the other.

In the light of the torch, he saw Liam sitting back an arm’s reach from his sleeping bag clutching a bloody nose.

“Oh no. Did I break your nose?” James asked the livid giant in front of him.

“Des! Beal bucking bad.”

James knew better than to smile, but it took most of his willpower to express as much concern as he could.

“I’m so sorry Liam. You must have startled me and I sat up into you.”

“Du dink?!” Liam said while glaring daggers at him and pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Ok, I’m really sorry. Let me set it. I’m sure your HP will heal it quickly.” James said as he slowly moved towards the angry man.

“Du bebber dot buck it ub abbybor.” He said before slowly dropping his hand to let James see the damage. It was bad. Bad enough to make James grimace and Liam begin to reach back up to grab it again.

“No. Please, Liam. I need to set it or it's going to look really bad when it heals.”

“Dokay,” Liam said around the blood in his nose and throat.

James delicately took the nose into his fingers. The bridge was curved to a point towards the left while also being flattened and compressed to nearly the level of his face in the center.

“Ok this is going to hurt but it would be way worse if I didn’t,” James said while pinching the top of the bridge in two fingers and pinching the bottom with two more. He left the torch floating in the air behind his head.

Quickly, he pulled the nose straight and realigned the cartilage as he saw Liam's eyes running with tears. Not slowing down once the nose was realigned, he conjured two pencil-like sticks and unceremoniously shoved them up Liam’s nostrils. This earned him a roar of displeasure and a swing of a fist that he dodged out of the way of.

“I know that sucks but if you want to be able to smell again we need those nostrils to heal straight.”

Liam was looking at him with hatred in his eyes as the two sticks poked out the bottom of his still slightly crooked nose.

“Wai am I da ondy un who getz hurdt?” He said, approximating an angry tone despite his appearance. James felt now wouldn’t be a good time to mention how badly his head hurt so he only replied with a shrug.

“Waid, did yu mege a flying torge?”

Looking back at the torch that floated over his shoulder, James shrugged again.

“Well, I guess I did.”

Thirty minutes and several HP later, James and Liam sat around an illusory fire as Liam felt his now healed nose.

“You got me real bad I want you to know,” Liam said looking at James while he ate a protein bar.

“Sorry again man. I guess you just spooked me. I actually thought I broke my head when I first woke up.”

“You just nearly did I imagine. Thanks for straightening it though. It would have been a real eyesore had I done it.”

“No problem. Try to not make me fixing you a habit.”

That earned him a smile and a shove which nearly toppled him off his backpack which he was using as a seat.

“What did I wake you up from anyway? Seemed bad. You were shaking and talking gibberish.”

“I was having a bad dream about a storm. I think my mentor was trying to talk to me but the dungeon was interfering. Somehow that made the dream worse.”

“Strange, but the whole thing is. Wish we could have asked him about the dungeon though.”

“Yeah. I’m sure he could have helped.” James said that dejectedly as he looked down the shaft.

Liam stood up and knocked the dust off his pants before saying. “Well, we both know the only way out of here. Are you ready to go?” He said with a tight smile and an outstretched hand.

Taking his hand, James stood and picked up his pack. “Ready as I’ll ever be.” And reached out to take the chain.

Their descent was agonizingly slow but not nearly as hard as they had expected. The links of the chain were just large enough to put their feet through if they angled them sideways and made the descent hard on their feet but easy on their arms. James had also used this experience to perfect keeping a floating torch hovering over his shoulder. It was more mentally taxing than he expected, he had to concentrate on moving the illusion every time he moved, but after a while, it became like second nature to him.

After nearly half an hour, and several hundred feet of chain, they reached an open room with hallways coming off in four directions. The walls were of the same stone that the upper hallways had been made of. The only difference was in the roughness of the stone and the increased presence of wooden supports. The walls were still marked with pick marks, but down here they were cruder and not finished, formed more for function than ascetics. The room itself was roughly circular and, besides the chain and supports, had no distinguishing characteristics.

“So where do we go?” James softly asked, looking at the four options.

“We have to do this systematically and safely,” Liam responded quietly.

“Follow right wall?” James asked tentatively.

“How would that help us? And besides, which wall is right?” Liam asked.

“In mazes, if you stick to one wall, eventually you’ll explore the whole maze. And any wall can be right as long as we stick to it.”

“What if it's not a maze?”

“Huh. Hadn’t thought of that.” James responded frankly. “Well, then it's less of a problem for us I guess.”

“That way,” Liam said while pointing down a hall at random. “But first, let’s light a torch and leave it here so we can see it if we’ve doubled back.”

“Smart,” James replied before pulling a torch out of his pack and lighting it with his sputtering lighter. “I can’t believe this lighter is giving out on me already.”

“The old world is fading fast,” Liam said with something akin to reverence in his voice.

“You think that's what it is? Makes sense I guess. It’s a bold new world out there.” He said the last bit mockingly, but it did little to dampen the excitement in Liam's eyes.

“Quickly, let’s go! Who knows what wonders await us.” Liam encouraged.

Liam’s improved mood confused James, but it did encourage him. He replied “Ok, same plan as yesterday? You move first?”

“I will take lead. Keep an eye out for traps and enemies.”

“I will,” James replied. Becoming infected with Liam’s enthusiasm despite his worry and fear.

Slowly they proceeded down the tunnel in front of them. And this was a proper tunnel. Sometimes wide enough for both of them but rarely for long and roughly hewn out of the stone. The claustrophobic tunnel forced Liam to walk with his head bowed in most places. Despite the changes in the walls and ceiling, the tunnel ran straight ahead till it reached an intersection.

The intersection was wider and sported several wooden structural additions, but otherwise looked similar to the tunnel they had just come out of. This intersection also had four tunnels coming off of it, three besides the one they had come from.

“Where to?” Liam asked.

“Straight? Till we reach an end I guess.” James replied.

Silently they proceeded. After several hundred feet, James heard Liam gasp.

“What in all hells is that?” Liam asked with fear in his voice.

Looking around his bulk, James saw a large amorphous something moving their direction at the edge of their light.

“Let’s see,” James said as he created another illusory torch and floated it down the tunnel towards the creature.

When the light came close, the creature seemed to shrink back from it for a moment till it realized it wasn’t a danger and came creeping on. The creature was large enough that it took up the whole of the tunnel’s width and most of its height as it lurched closer. It appeared to be made up of rotting plant matter and maybe mold or lichen. It had no apparent face or features at all but it reacted to their presence and the light so it must be able to see somehow.

Liam pulled out the rusted sword from where it was strapped to his pack and faced the monster.

Lvl. 1 [Mound Crawler]

“What are you going to do?” James asked as the creature continued closer to the pair.

“I’m going to poke it with this pointy bit of metal unless you have a better idea,” Liam responded sharply.

“I might,” James responded in kind. “I could use steam.”

“You’d cook me where I stand.”

“I could use my [Draconic Aura] and try to scare it off?”

“Your what? No, just let me fight this damn thing. You just back up and make sure I have light.”

James did, but not happily. It was hard to leave the fighting up to Liam, especially without being able to see clearly through the narrow tunnel, but he trusted Liam could handle the creature.

Liam brandished the rusted sword at the creature as it drew closer. It somehow seemed aware of the danger despite having no apparent face or eyes. It’s lurching almost fluid-like movement stopped perhaps two arm spans from the tip of the old weapon.

After a tense moment of waiting for the other to make the first move, Liam lunged forward and tried to dig the tip of his blade into the center of the plant-like mass. The blob moved surprisingly quickly as it pulled its mass back and simultaneously whipped a vine-like appendage towards Liam’s hand on the sword. Liam moved quickly and brought the sword back far enough to slice the end off the vine that was threatening his sword hand. The mound shook and released a stream of noxious gas along with a high pitched whine as it retreated, pulling its tendril back into its mass as it did so.

“I think I did some damage there,” Liam said over his shoulder. James couldn’t see very well but the noises that the creature made were a clear indication to him that Liam had struck a nerve.

“Should I press the advantage or let it come back towards me again?” Liam asked, keeping his eyes on the creature some 30 feet distant.

“I don’t know. I think we’re going to have to deal with it but I’m worried it’s trying to lure you.” James said, trying to see around Liam’s bulk.

“I have to. Keep on my back.” Liam said as he slowly moved forwards. The tunnel now stank of wet rotting plant material to an extent that made it difficult to breathe, but Liam and James pressed on despite this. Once they were close to striking distance again, Liam put his free hand behind his back and asked.

“Hand me the hatchet, would yah? I’m going to throw it at the creature before I attack.”

James handed over the hatchet with no complaint as Liam prepared for his strike. As soon as he lifted the hatchet to throw the mound flung itself forward and reached out two tendrils towards Liam, the damaged one and another. Liam swung the hatchet and tried to jump back at the same time. He managed to strike the damaged tendril again, lopping off a close to two-foot portion as he did. But his movement ran him into James as he jumped backward. They might have fallen over each other had the other tendril not grabbed hold of Liam’s ankle and drug him kicking into the organic mass.

James watched in horror as the mass engulfed Liam in a moment beginning to quickly move away from him down the tunnel. He immediately sprung into action and conjured gauntlets up to his elbows as he ran towards the mound. He had nearly caught up to it when the mound shuddered as a sword blade ripped out of its side followed by a hand holding the hilt. James reached forward with both hands and grabbed the arm as he planted his feet and pulled.

With the sound of a giant boot being pulled out of mud, Liam’s shoulder and head appeared from the side of the mound. As Liam’s head emerged, the mound made another high-pitched whine and Liam gasped loudly. Still, with his torso and legs stuck in the creature, Liam freed his other hand and began hacking at the creature with the hatchet. James just held onto his other arm and resisted the mound’s attempts to pull Liam back into his body.

It took several well-placed hits, but the mound got weaker with every blow, and suddenly Liam was free and the mound collapsed into a formless pile. Liam pulled his legs and feet from the wet pile as he caught his breath leaning on James.

Liam seemed not too much worse for the wear. He was coated in a layer of what looked to be rotting plant material and smelled like the bottom of a bog, but besides that, he was almost completely unharmed. He had a deep scrape along one cheek and was careful with the weight he put on the leg that had been grabbed, but otherwise looked ok.

“What was that?”

As James asked, the mound burbled up another puff of noxious gas and laid completely still.

*Ding*

Your party defeated Lvl. 1 [Mound Crawler]

+ 350 EXP (438 [EXP Boost]) (shared between party)

“It was gross, is what it was,” Liam responded while scraping muck off his head and arms. “Whatever it was it seemed to be made up of those vines. They were holding everything else together in there. I managed to cut a few with the sword before you pulled me out.”

“Well, I’m just glad you’re ok. When I saw that thing grab you…. I’m just glad you’re ok.”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Let’s just take a moment and I’ll be good to keep going. It nearly broke my ankle when it grabbed me.”

“Let me check that out,” Liam said as he dismissed the gauntlets from his arms and ushered Liam to a sitting position on the ground. He pulled out the first aid kit and grabbed some butterfly bandages to put on Liam’s face cut after washing the area with some water from a bottle. After that, he rolled up Liam’s pant leg and looked at the swollen joint. There was a purple band of flesh that wrapped around the leg and over the ankle but after a few prods and rolling the joint to Liam’s anger, he pronounced the ankle unbroken and wrapped it in a compress to help with the swelling.

They sat in silence for close to fifteen minutes before Liam stood up and declared it was time to continue their search. He moved in a way that minimized the weight he put on his bad leg, but he moved well enough to demand keeping his position in the front.

After another several hundred feet of tunnel, they ran into a dead end. James insisted on striking the end of the tunnel with the magic pick but, besides carving a large chunk of rock from the wall, it did nothing. They retraced their path back to the last intersection and decided on taking a right. After an uneventful stretch of tunnel, they reached another four-way intersection.

“Is it a grid?” James asked the visibly frustrated Liam.

“I don’t know, but if we're not careful we’ll be down here wandering forever.”

“Ok fair but what do we do? Go right again?”

“Might as well. I don’t have a better idea.”

They turned right and continued down an empty tunnel. At one point, James felt something he couldn’t quite pinpoint as they walked past an unassuming section of wall, but they were soon past it and he put it out of mind. After several hundred feet of tunnel, they found and checked another dead end before turning around and continuing back.

On the way back, James felt the energy radiating faintly from the same section of the wall and stopped the now irate Liam. Pointing to where the energy seemed to be coming from, he stood back as Liam took large gouges out of the wall with the pick. The pick seemed to move through the solid stone-like clay and made the job incredibly quick. Before long, Liam exposed a vein of what appeared to be mana stone. They dug it out and removed what they could, but it wasn’t a very big vein and in the end, they had maybe fifteen pounds of the faintly glowing rocks stored in James’ pack.

They returned to the intersection in better spirits and decided to take another right and continue the direction they had been going before their last turn. After a short distance, they came upon a large stope that had only partially cleared out a vein of copper. The vein ran through the stone surrounding it, dyeing the off-white stone shades of green and grey near the vein but the vein itself was pure copper twice the height and half as wide as Liam. They couldn’t decide if it was worth excavating or not but eventually decided on leaving it until they could bring the chest down here later.

They returned to the intersection and took the last tunnel to their right. After a short walk, they came up to another four-way intersection. This would have been discouraging, except down the tunnel to their left there was a low light in the distance given off by their sputtering torch.

“I’m almost certain now. It’s a grid pattern. They must have dug in a pattern like this to find ore. It doesn’t make too much sense to me. I figured they would have prospected and found veins in another way but I guess this makes as much sense as anything. I’m no [Miner].” James said this while peering down the two unexplored tunnels.

“I’m just glad it’s not a labyrinth and it’s simply laid out,” Liam replied. He was much happier after finding the magic stones and copper vein. His ankle had also healed and he wasn’t walking with a limp anymore. “Let’s go to the right, I bet it dead ends, then we can continue around the center in a circle and hopefully finish clearing out this dungeon.”

James smiled at the newfound enthusiasm from Liam. It takes a lot to keep this guy down. He’s been stabbed, cooked by steam, had his nose broken, slashed at, drug, and got eaten by a pile of rot and he still is excited. I’m glad he found me. James thought as he followed Liam down the short and empty tunnel that dead-ended as expected before they returned to the intersection and followed the unexplored tunnel forward.

After a couple dozen steps Liam stopped which also stopped James.

“Be careful, there’s a tripwire here. Must be a trap. Let’s step over it and mark that it's here. Ok?”

James agreed and they both stepped over the hair-thin wire before continuing more cautiously than before, leaving a burnt-out torch from yesterday near the wire to mark it. As they proceeded towards the next intersection they both saw a low green glow coming from ahead.

They moved cautiously and slowly forwards. When they entered the next small open intersection, they saw that the tunnel in front of them and the tunnel to their right were both giving off a green glow. They could see that there was some form of plant that was growing on the walls of the tunnels that gave off a low green light.

“Let’s be careful of whatever that is but let's keep with our plan and go right,” James said pointing down the tunnel.

Liam nodded and set off with sword in hand. By this point, both had gotten used to moving together in the silence, prepared for whatever came next. Once closer, they saw that the lime-green light was coming from clusters of what appeared to be tiny tentacle-like fungal protrusions. These fungal stalks seemed to sway in a non-existent breeze, individually gradually glowing brighter before dimming rapidly. However, with how many stalks covered the walls and ceiling, the level of light didn’t ever change.

As they walked, more clusters of fungus covered the walls and the tunnel got progressively brighter before leading out into a large natural cavern coated with the glowing fungus. While the fungus covered the walls, ceilings, and stalactites, not a single cluster was found on the ground or near the base of the walls. Across the several hundred foot wide cave were numerous stalactites, stalagmites, and several large glowing puddles. Despite the odd sight, neither batted an eye as they both simply readied their weapons and followed the right wall, keeping eyes out for any movement as they followed the right wall of the cavern.

After a short while of searching, they came across a large puddle that was growing bioluminescent algae. The cavern was well lit and, while it was not as bright as being lit by the sun, their eyes had adjusted to the underground darkness and they could see well enough that James had dismissed his floating torch.

Following the wall, Liam stepped around the puddle. However, as James followed, his footing slipped and his foot disturbed the water. As soon as his boot touched the surface the whole puddle reacted.

In a single moment, the puddle contracted into a blob of what appeared to be luminescent living water. Before James could regain his footing, it lurched forward and engulfed his leg in the center of its body. James screamed as he felt the substance of his leg begin to be digested by the creature.

Lvl. 4 [Cave slime]

James reacted instinctively and released a jet of steam from the sole of his foot, blowing his shoe and the slime off his foot in a moment. He could see that the steam had boiled part of the inside of the slime but the large creature started to lurch towards him again.

A heavy blow from Liam’s sledgehammer burst a large portion of the slime away as Liam struck. Despite the reduced mass, the slime continued forwards. As the slime lunged at him again, James brought the hatchet down on the top of it and cleaved it in two. After a moment of confusion the now two smaller slimes lunged together towards James. One was avoided by a fast dodge, but the other managed to attach itself to James’ chest and quickly ate a hole in his shirt and the skin below. Liam reached out and grabbed the slime, peeling it off James' chest, before throwing it as hard as he could into the wall of the cavern. This burst apart the slime and sent droplets raining around the impact site. James, seeing the effectiveness of blunt trauma, kicked the remaining slime hard enough to break it down into droplets of goo.

*Ding*

Your party defeated Lvl. 2 [Cave Slime]

+ 150 EXP (188 [EXP Boost]) (shared between party)

*Ding*

Your party defeated Lvl. 2 [Cave Slime]

+ 150 EXP (188 [EXP Boost]) (shared between party)

James fell to the ground and nursed the areas of raw flesh that the slime had left behind. His boot was nowhere to be seen and his bare foot up to his knee was red and spotted with bloody patches where the skin had been digested enough that it was raw and weeping blood. The same went for his chest. Liam sat next to him with one bloody hand cradled in the other. They were both silent for a few moments as their HP regenerated the missing skin.

Finally, after enough time passed that their wounds looked no worse than terrible sunburns, Liam turned to James with a smile and said. “Hah, now you see it’s no fun.”

“Shaddup Liam. I never thought you getting hurt was fun.” He replied angrily.

“Ok now. I know you didn’t. Just giving you a hard time. How’s your foot?”

“Pretty raw. But better. Give me a little while and I will be able to move.”

“Sucks about your boot.”

“Yeah, you’ll just have to make me a new one.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

They sat in silence for a while after that as they recovered. But soon they were ready to continue searching the cavern. They came across another puddle that ended up being a slime but this one was smaller and lower level. Between Liam’s sledge, and the spear that James wove, they managed to keep it at range long enough to kill it without taking any more damage. Other than that, the only thing that the cavern seemed to hold was a ton of the glowing fungus.

“Should we take some back with us?” James asked, slicing a mat of it off the stone beneath with his hatchet.

“Maybe. It might be dangerous.”

“Might also be super useful.”

“Ok, but you’re carrying it.”

“Fair enough.”

Before long they had gathered a large portion of the fungus and put it into an outside pouch of James’ pack. After that, they discovered that this cavern apparently connected the two glowing tunnels from the last intersection they returned from the new direction.

After returning they followed the right wall to the next intersection. To the left was the low flickering light of the torch in the central room with the chain, the right had led to a short empty tunnel.

“If this pattern keeps up there aren’t much of these mines left,” Liam said.

“We can only hope,” James replied. His foot was becoming very uncomfortable after walking on the rough, and sometimes sharp, stone floors without a shoe.

“Well, let’s press on,” Liam said in a mood that was decidedly too cheery for James.

After another narrow passage, they came out into an intersection. While the intersection was the same crude stone supported by wooden beams, the tunnels coming off this intersection were markedly different. They could see the end of the tunnel to the right and the loose rubble and rocks piled against the far wall were a change from the normally clean-cut tunnels they had become used to. The tunnel ahead was also significantly wider than what they were used to and appeared to be more crudely carved. The tunnel to the left was as normal as the rest had been so far.

James pointed to the short tunnel to the right. “You think that was a cave in?”

“I don’t. See, you can see the unfinished wall behind the rocks. To me, it just looks like they gave up. And what's with the wider tunnel?”

“Couldn’t say. The mining looks different.”

“Almost looks like… No. Couldn’t be.” Liam said, shaking his head.

“What are you thinking?” James asked apprehensively.

“Well, you see those long lines that run straight next to each other?” After a nod, he continued. “Don’t you think that kinda looks like claw markings? Did something dig its way into the mine?

“Uggh.” James groaned. “You know what? I think we're gonna find out.”

Liam looked at James’ frightened and exhausted face with a look that was equally exhausted but filled with adventure.

“Well, let's find out,” Liam said with a borderline maniacal smile on his face. “Only way is forward.”

“Damn me for saying that,” James grumbled as the two began walking side by side down the wide tunnel.

The tunnel was different from the ones before. It was extremely rough on both walls and floor, curving around in a seemingly random fashion, and slowly began to slope downwards. After a while, both of the men fell into complete silence as the apprehension weighed on them. It felt like a terribly long distance, but it wasn’t more than a half-mile before they saw the tunnel widen into a large cavern before them.

Seeing the change they slowed down and James reduced the light from the floating torch. Together they peeked around the last bend and looked into the room in front of them. James floated the dim torch into the large natural cavern. Neither was ready for what they saw.

Liam hauled James back behind the bend and said in an intense but whispered voice. “Is that a dragon?”

“No, no,” James said, prying Liam’s heavy hand from his collar. “It only has two legs and wings. The thing I killed had four legs and no wings and it was a drake. I’m fairly sure that's a wyvern if I’m not mistaken. Lesser relation to a dragon but not a dragon. Dragon, four legs and two wings. Drake, four legs, no wings. Wyvern, two legs, two wings. Wyrm, no legs, no wings” James caught himself babbling as he often did when he was nervous and shut his mouth.

“Ok, so not a dragon. Still massive.” Liam said with a shaky voice.

“It’s larger than the drake but not by too much. Did you see what it was sitting on?” James said with a sparkle in his eyes.

“Yes, I believe that’s a hoard,” Liam responded still in shock.

“A hoard!!” James shout-whispered. “A real dragon hoard. Well, not a real dragon. But close enough. I saw gold and weapons as well as other things. Oh, I can't guess...”

Liam cut him off. “Ok that's all well and good but we have to survive first before we get any of that. We need a plan.”

“Why don’t you just poke it with your pointy bit of metal?” James asked with an almost straight face.

“Alright, you,” Liam grumbled. “You gotta have a plan. I couldn’t even scratch the drake’s scales with my daggers and you know that. How did you kill him?”

“Stabbed him in the open mouth. It was easier because he was asleep.”

“How’d you manage that?”

“Got lucky I guess. I think that’s still our best chance.”

“How do you plan on that?”

They conferred for several more minutes in hushed whispers as they came up with a plan they expected might work.

Afterward, they crept around the edge of the tunnel, huddled together under the thin illusion that James had wove around them. From the outside, they looked to be a large oblong boulder that was slowly creeping towards the center of the room that was giving off a low light in the otherwise dark room.

When they were within thirty feet of the wyvern they could hear its deep breathing and see its thick grey scales shifting around the small mountain of gold beneath. The wyvern had a long sinuous body that was as thick as a horse’s near the chest. Where the arms should have been was a pair of large bat-like wings that reached up and over its torso and ran down to nearly the tip of its long spiked tail. Its legs were stocky and squat, seemingly made for jumping more than walking. Its neck was thick and short compared to its tail, but that was needed to support its thick skull and large jaws that were tipped with beak-like spurs of bone. The heavy head was crowned with two large spiraling almost antelope-like horns that nearly touched the wingtips above them.

Again, Liam raised his hand with three fingers raised. Only this time, his hands were shaking. In his other hand, he clutched his sword with white knuckles. James shook as he stood beside him. His arms were gauntleted and he had a simple open face iron helmet on his head. Using both hands, he carried a long wooden spear with an iron head.

Liam lowered a finger. Two.

Lowered another. One.

Then as soon as Liam made a fist they both yelled as loud as they could, still under the illusory barrier. The wyvern’s eyes shot open and it quickly, if not too gracefully, got to its feet as it looked around the room for the source of the noise As it did its tail whipped around its surroundings, spreading gold coins, weapons, and armor alike.

James looked up at the beast.

Lvl. 3 [Lesser Earth Wyvern]

The wyvern wasn’t cooperating. They looked at each other again and cringed before raising their voices in another wordless shout.

Thyrus opened his eyes as the wordless shout disturbed his long slumber. That shout sounded like it came from a man-beast. He thought as he rose to his feet and shook his body in agitation. It’s been many years since I’ve tasted man flesh. He thought greedily as he looked for the source of the racket. With the second shout, his eyes snapped onto the man-beast’s hiding spot. Oh, I hope it’s not dwarves again. Terribly tough meat. Besides, I haven't eaten anything besides dwarves for… His thoughts led to confusion as he couldn’t seem to remember what had led him to be in these mines or for how long he had been there. Strange. He thought before another shout brought him back to the matter at hand.

He opened his great maw in a roar to challenge whatever man-flesh was hidden within the strange boulder illusion. Strangely, they hid in what could be only called an absolute amateur illusion yet still seemed to be challenging him. However, as he opened his maw, that seemed to be what they were waiting for. Before he could release his voice, two large spikes of metal appeared behind the backs of his teeth, holding his mouth open.

He was shocked. His thoughts became increasingly agitated as the rock before him disappeared revealing two large humans running towards him. He swung his tail around at the two but, before it could make contact, a low wall of stone appeared in between his tail and the two, taking the brunt of the attack. When this wall appeared the smaller human staggered in apparent exhaustion and nearly stumbled as the larger ran forward and lept directly towards his face. Once he realized why the human was doing this it was too late. He tried to raise his head to be out of the range of the human, yet couldn't move fast enough to stop the sword from sinking deep into the flesh of the back of his throat.

But Thyrus knew he wasn’t down yet. Coughing past the blood and sword in his throat he let loose a roar that was filled with fragments of stone. As he breathed out, a powerful gust of stone fragments ripped out of his maw and crashed over the man’s arm and shoulder. He felt the large man release the sword and saw him drop to the ground with a mangled arm and shoulder.

Seeing his advantage, Thyrus leaned back and kicked at the man with the long talons of his feet. But before the blow could land, another wall of stone appeared between the man and his foot. But this wall was thinner and not able to stop the momentum of his whole body and the strength of his stout legs. As he crashed through the stone his foot still made contact with the large man. His talons ripped through the flimsy armor over his chest and knocked him back quite a ways. The smaller man reacted to this with some shout in the simple language most humans used before running directly at him.

He saw that the large one was down and, despite the pain and blood in his throat and jaw, he was confident that the smaller one would be less of a threat. That was until the small human roared and for a fraction of a second released an aura like of one of the great dragons. That aura confused him and caused him to hesitate for the moment it took the human to jump towards his face, but he wouldn’t let the same attack work twice. He turned his head sharply to the left, trying to knock the spear away from the human. At that moment his confusion deepened as the spear fell apart in the way that illusions do. In his second deadly moment of hesitation, the human grabbed a hold of his beak with one gauntleted hand and put the other hand deep into his mouth.

Another moment of confusion and a new emotion, fear, consumed him before his insides were filled with a raging torrent of steam. He felt the heat and pain cascade within his body for just a moment before all faded to black.

James ran from the still twitching body of the wyvern over to his friend. Liam was completely laid out on the ground, twisted around the base of a stalagmite. Slowly a pool of blood was growing around his form.

“ShitShitShit..” James mumbled as he assessed the situation. It didn’t look like Liam had broken his back or neck. That was good. It meant he could move him. He slowly turned him onto his back and was relieved to hear the groan that came from him.

“Careful. Ribs broke.” Liam managed to wheeze.

“Well, at least you’re alive,” James said smiling as he heard the groaning from below him.

Liam had four vertical slashes that covered his chest from collar to naval. The remnants of his hockey pads were tatters barely held together by a strip of cloth across his belly. The slashes were deep but not critical. It seemed that the wall, pads, and his [Thick Skin] had managed to block most of the blow. James shuddered thinking about what the damage would have looked like without any one of those. His hand, arm, and shoulder were worse for wear, but they also looked like something stitches and time would fix. The only bones that seemed broken were the ribs that were causing Liam to take shallow gasping breaths.

“Hey, you’re gonna be fine.”

“I’m tired of hearing that.”

James laughed and Liam managed a pained smile.

“I didn’t see a death message. Is that thing down?” Liam sounded like each word hurt him but he had a determined look in his eyes.

James looked behind him and saw the twitching body on the floor. “Yeah, it has to be. I cooked its throat and lungs. I think it’s just taking a while to sort itself out.” James cringed as the beast took a large ragged gurgling gasp of air before settling back to twitching. James hated to see any animal suffer like that but he had to look after Liam first.

“Ok, this is going to take some stitches and some bandages. You better let me do it this time. Your hand is still pretty messed up.”

“Sounds good. Just don’t leave me ugly.”

James laughed again at that. “You know that’s my number one priority. Now shut up and let me fix you up.”

It took close to fifteen minutes for James to roughly stitch or bandage the damage up to a point where Liam wasn’t losing any more blood. The whole time he was nervously looking over his shoulder, expecting the wyvern to stand up at any moment and charge them. It didn’t, but it also didn’t die.

Another half-hour later, the two sat still watching the wyvern struggle for each breath.

“We should do something,” James said.

“Let it die in pain,” Liam responded with no little vehemence.

“That’s cruel and you know it. We need to put it out of its misery.”

“Fine. But I get to do it.”

“Can you stand?”

“Shut it. I can and I will.” Liam said while using his arm that wasn’t in a sling to stabilize himself as he stood.

It was an obvious effort and caused him a lot of pain, but the time and rest had already closed most of his wounds and set his bones so he was able to stand. He hobbled over to the unconscious wyvern and reached into its mouth for the hilt of his blade. Finding it, he twisted and pulled it out before plunging it back into the gaping maw.

All of a sudden, James’ vision was filled with multiple screens.

*Ding*

Your party defeated Lvl. 3 [Lesser Earth Wyvern]

+ 2,400 (3,000 [EXP Boost]) EXP (shared between party)

*Whoosh*

[Quest Complete!] Repeatable quest: [Lvl. 1 Dungeon Clear] has been completed.

Item: [Dungeon Key] has been added.

EXP +2,500 (3,125 [EXP Boost])

Bonus requirement met: [First Dungeon]

Item: [Adventurer’s Pack] has been added.

EXP +2,500 (3,125 [EXP Boost])

[LEVEL 4] [Dream Weaver] Reached

You have received new skills [Mana Bank], [Uncommon Weave], and [Constant Weave]

Leveling will take effect upon next full rest.

*Ding*

Congratulations! You have cleared your first dungeon.

You now may fortify, destroy, or simply leave the dungeon. If you choose to fortify the dungeon simply channel mana into the key you received. This may be done using any character’s mana, mana stones, or any sufficiently mana rich artifact. If you choose to destroy the dungeon you may simply break the key. This will grant you a great boon but will erase the entirety of the dungeon from existence. If you choose to leave the dungeon know that the time it takes to reset the dungeon won’t start till your whole party leaves the dungeon.

“Liam, you seeing all this?”

“Yeah, just hit level four and got a new skill. [Armored]. Should be helpful. You get one of these packs too?”

“The adventurer’s one?”

“Yeah. Look inside.”

James did and what he saw failed to surprise him in the least. The large leather pack was bigger on the inside. Not by too much but it appeared to be at least twice as large as it should be.

“Neat.” He replied dully.

“It’s amazing.” Liam nearly shouted. “It’s magic!”

“Sure is,” James replied, looking down at the simple iron key in his hands. “Hey Liam, what should we do with the dungeon?”

“I say fortify or leave it alone. It’s been incredible so far and I wouldn’t want to waste it.”

Liam had said it with such enthusiasm and joy that James had to look past the dangers that they had faced and the blood-filled wounds he still saw whenever he closed his eyes to see the damaged but excited young man that was beaming in front of him.

“Ok. You’re right.” James replied, raising his hands in a defeated gesture. “We did get some amazing stuff so far. Wanna check the hoard?”

He knew that would get the desired response out of Liam as he hooped and turned back to the pile of wealth by his feet.

It took them the better part of three hours to catalog the hoard. A good part of that was spent with James studying the magic items while Liam skinned and took the skull from the wyvern. After studying the items they lined up the entirety of the hoard and made a list. Liam was the [Scribe].

“455 gold coins.”

“233 silver coins.”

“13 silver bars weighing close to seven pounds each.”

“About 2200 copper coins.” Those were sitting in rough piles of 100.

“A bundle of four paper scrolls and one copper plate containing single-use, or multiple-use in the case of the copper plate, spells. One seems to release an ice-based spell. Two are fire-based. And the copper plate and one other have spells I don’t understand.”

“One spellbook containing seemingly low-level earth spells.”

“Two sets of apparently children’s brass scale mail armor. Good quality. Much too small for us.”

“Three bronze short swords and one of crude iron.”

“One high-quality bronze longsword with minor enchantments of sharpness, durability, and weight.”

“Four wooden shields and one made out of silver-plated iron that is enchanted for durability.”

“One set of two long daggers made of some form of hardened bone. Seems to be dragon bone from the carvings.”

“One large brass gong.”

“And last but not least, a [Lesser Stone Wyvern] skin and skull.”

Liam made the final note in his notebook with his pen before closing the book and looking expectantly at James.

“If you think I have a plan to deal with all this junk, you’re wrong.”

Liam’s face fell a little at that.

“Oh well fine. I say we load stuff from our old packs and whatever else fits into these new packs then we go and bring the chest down here for the rest and whatever ore we can carry.”

“I think I can go and bring the chest back down here by myself,” Liam said. “Why don’t you explore the rest of the dungeon while I do that?”

“Is that safe? Splitting up?” James asked.

‘I don’t see why not. It said the dungeon was clear.”

“Fine fine. Just be careful of traps.”

“You too.”

Close to an hour and a half later they reconvened in the lower central room with the chain. Liam was descending the chain carefully with the chest held in one hand. James had searched the rest of the mines and had only found another vein of iron and a single pitfall trap before making trips to bring as much of the loot to the central room as he could. Blessedly, it seemed whatever enchantment was on their packs also reduced the weight of what they were carrying.

Liam grunted as he dropped the chest down onto the stone floor of the room. James could see that his arm still was bothering him, but it seemed that most of the damage had been fixed by his large HP pool. As he watched, Liam opened the chest and began to take the larger pieces of the loot down into the chest. At the last moment, James noticed he was still wearing his enchanted pack as he descended into the chest.

“No! Stop Liam!” James yelled. But it was too late. Liam already entered the chest bringing one special enchantment into another. James dove to one side to avoid the resulting explosion. Which never came…

James looked up at the smiling Liam whose head was sticking out of the chest in a strangely comical fashion.

“You ok there James?’

“Yeah…” James said hesitantly as he stood and brushed himself off. “I just… I expected the two compressed space items to conflict and explode...”

“Why’s that? I’ve already gone down here a couple times you know?” Liam said, still sporting his smug smile.

“Well...I mean… Bags of holding…” He said as a sad excuse for an explanation.

“Bags of what? It’s fine, ok. Just help me get all this stuff down in the chest.”

James sheepishly helped him take all the loot down to the small room and then helped him carry the chest towards the copper vein. Liam used the magic pick to break huge chunks of the ore off the vein as James ferried the ore down into the chest. After they had gotten enough ore to satisfy Liam they went to the iron ore vein that James had discovered. This ore was harder to extract, but after a short time they had filled up almost all of the free floor space in the chest.

Leaning back on the wall of the stope, Liam said to James. “We need shelves and crates in the chest. You think you can make those when we get back?”

“Should be able to,” James said as he stuck his head out of the chest. “You got enough iron?”

“Think so. Let’s call it a day and head back.”

“Thank goodness,” James said while dismissing his [Rigorous Exercise] quest notification. “Let’s get home. It’s been a blast but I’m ready to be done with this dungeon.”

Liam smiled over at him. “Oh, it hasn’t been that bad. I’m the one who got my insides rearranged. Besides, before we go we have to decide what we want to do with the key.”

“You’re right. I assume you want to fortify it?”

“Yupp.” He said with a giant grin. “If this is what we found in a level one dungeon imagine a level two or three.”

“I’d rather not,” James said thinking about the image of the tatters of Liam’s hand only a few hours ago. “Ok, but I’m only gonna level it once.”

Focusing on the key he saw a screen appear.

Level 1 [Drake Mines] [Dungeon Key] 0/100 MP

He checked his status before adding MP.

James Lvl. 3 [Dream Weaver]

HP 8/13

MP 53/96

EN 12/39

“Damn. Ok, I’m gonna need your MP too to level it.”

“Why don’t you use some of the magic stones we have?”

“I’m probably still going to need to.” He said while duping his MP into the key. The rapid drain gave him a dry scratchy feeling behind his eyes.

He handed the key to Liam and watched as the large man struggled to put his MP into the object. Eventually, something clicked and James watched the color visibly drain from his face.

“Oh, that’s an awful feeling,” Liam said handing the key back to James. He checked.

Level 1 [Drake Mines] [Dungeon Key] 89/100 MP

“Yeah, you get used to it,” James replied tersely, dealing with the pain in his own head. He pulled out a fragment of the mana stone that they had mined earlier, one about as large as his thumb, and pressed it into the key.

*Ding*

*Ding*

Level 3 [Drake Mines] [Dungeon Key] 135/10,000 MP

“Damn it,” James muttered.

“What? Liam asked, rubbing his aching head.

“There’s way more mana in the stones than I thought. Accidentally leveled the dungeon twice.”

“So we got a level three dungeon now?” Liam asked with too much enthusiasm for James’ liking.

“Yupp.” He replied dully. “Well, once it levels. However long that takes.”

“That’s great. We’ll be stronger and have more allies when we come back. Could you imagine the loot and levels we’ll get then?” His excited smile warmed something in James’ heart.

Wasn’t I singing show tunes about experience just a couple days ago? What happened to that enthusiasm? I think I got scared. I think it was when I saw Liam’s guts in my hands. I’m going to have to get past that. Yes this is the real world and people get hurt, but we are prepared and strong. We can, and we will get stronger too.

Looking up, James saw Liam’s bright smile and returned one in kind.

“Yeah. Let’s get stronger Liam. I mean, I had to put you back together how many times? Three? Maybe four?” He said with a bright smile and saw some of the worries he hadn’t noticed a moment before wash out of Liam’s expression.

“Hey! It was only twice. I’m not gonna count you bashing my nose in! That one is on you.” Liam looked happy as he picked up the chest between his large hands. “Let’s get back to our base. I have some ideas on how to make it stronger.”

“Good, cause I got a lot of jobs for you to do too. You want to dig me an outhouse?”

“Nope, but I bet you I’m gonna.”

Laughing together the two young men carried their loads back up and out of the dungeon. The larger was clad in worn jeans, a pair of work boots that were already falling apart, the rags of what used to be a t-shirt, and a gleaming bronze skull cap. On his back was a large leather pack that carried more than it seemed. He had a large sledgehammer strapped to the pack next to a length of rope, a rather threadbare sleeping roll, and a silver round shield. On his waist, he sported a bronze longsword that when the light caught just right would glow with light blue runes.

The smaller of the two, not to say he was a small man at his just over six-foot height, strode next to his mountain of a partner as they carried the chest between them. He walked with a bit of a limp, as he was missing one of his leather hiking boots and walked with one bare foot. Yet, he stood straighter than he could ever remember standing as he walked back down stone tunnels. He wore heavy work jeans that were missing part of the pant leg near the bare foot. He had on a thin t-shirt that was sporting a large circular hole over his chest where the slime had stuck to him. He carried a similar pack to his partner but had a simple wooden round shield for his partner's silver one. He also had a simple iron short sword on one hip and a steel hatchet on the other. He had no helmet, but floating over his head was an illusory orb of fire that bobbed and moved with his movements.

The two traversed the tunnels, climbed the chain, (Liam had tied the chest to his pack) returned down the hall past the blade trap and the two rooms, and found themselves on the other side of the stope before they knew it. They stood in front of the two large stone doors for several moments before James spoke up.

“Why am I more nervous about leaving than I was about entering?”

“Probably because there is a whole big world out there full of monsters that make what we fought in here look like mice in comparison.”

“Thanks, Liam. Just what I needed to hear right now.”

“Anytime. You wanna do the honors? It is your dungeon after all.”

James pressed his hand against the doors and pushed.

Bright, white, and cold. Those were their first impressions. Looking out over the quarry they saw it was late evening and snow had fallen in the time since they left. They also saw movement, flashes of fire, and heard noises from near the shed.

“Looks like your sign may have worked,” Liam said. “Let’s see who’s here.”

They both walked over to the shed. As they rounded the truck they saw a low fire had been built near the entrance to the shed. Sitting at the fire were five small red humanoids with elongated reptilian faces, scaled skin, and short horns. They were wearing a patchwork of cloth that had been torn and tied to form simple clothing. The pieces were made from larger pieces of clothing and some were more complete smaller pieces of clothing that looked to be made for children.

They had been chattering in some language neither Liam nor James had recognized but as the large humans rounded the truck they stopped and stared up in abject fear. Some had been roasting meat on simple wooden skewers and turned the skewers towards the two men with shaking hands. The others fumbled for sharpened rocks, not daring to take their eyes off the two giants before them.

“Aww, they’re kinda cute,” James said while looking at the small creatures' attempts to huddle together and point crude weapons at them with shaking clawed hands. “Can we not kill them? Please? We could scare them off.”

Liam was looking at them with suspicion, remembering his experience with non-human humanoids. “I don’t know. Just be ready if they attack.”

“Yeah, yeah. Ok, you all! Get! Shoo! Come on now, get on out of here!” James was yelling while making shooing gestures with his hands, but the group was just gathering closer together while backing into the shed. “No don’t go in there! Leave!” He said that while pointing out of the quarry.

“Maybe use an illusion to scare them away? What else can you do?” At this point, Liam was suppressing a smile as he watched the strange scene unfold.

“Oh, I know what to do!” James said before standing up straight and shouting “FLEE!” As he did, he released a burst of his [Draconic Aura] in an attempt to scare them into running. Instead, all five immediately fell to their faces and prostrated themselves before him. They made some feeble noises while bowing over and over hard enough to bash their horns against the ground.

*Ding*

The members of the Small Stone Tribe recognize your greatness and sovereignty and wish to pledge their undying service to you.

Accept? [Y/N]

“Oh great.”

Ability: [Mana Bank] One of the most common skills among classes that use magics. Simply put, it doubles the user’s mana capacity. This does not affect mana regeneration.

Ability: [Uncommon Weave] This skill gives the user the ability to weave items of the [Uncommon] grade. Examples of such items are mana stones, steel, and manasteel, lesser enchanted arms and armor, as well as a myriad of other items.

Ability: [Constant Weave] This ability confers on the weaver the knowledge of creating weaves containing their own bank of mana, independent of the weaver. How this looks in practicality is a process of weaving a core of mana-retentive material, such as mana stone, for the weave to feed off of until the source is depleted and the weave dissipates. However, this skill can use other mana sources such as existing mana stones, higher density magical artifacts, or even another person to supply the necessary mana.

Character Name: James

Character HP:13/13 | MP:48/48 | EN:39/39

Character Level: [4] EXP:(878/100,000)

EXP Pool: + 0

Character Title: [Dreamer] [Dragon Slayer]

Character Race: [Human]

Character Age: [22]

Character Stats: (1-20)

Strength: [15]

Dexterity: [8]

Constitution: [13]

Intellect: [16]

Wisdom: [11]

Charisma: [4]

Luck: ???

Character Class: [Dream Weaver]

Character Sub-Class: [Empty]

Character Professions:

[Student] Lvl. 2 (733/1,000)

[Steam Master] Lvl. 3 (322/10,000)

[Empty]

Character Skills:

[Weave]

[Dream Walker]

[Sleep]

[Nightmare]

[Mana Bank]

[Uncommon Weave]

[Constant Weave]

[EXP Bonus] (X1.25)

[Skill Transfer]

[Study]

[Heat Resistance] (X1.3)

[Steam Release]

[Steam Powered]

[Basic Survival]

[Basic Carpentry]

[Basic Hand Combat]

[Basic First Aid]

[Basic Cooking]

Character Equipment:

[Iron Shortsword]

[Steel Hatchet]

[Old-world Clothes] (damaged)

+[Adventurer’s Pack]

+[Magic Chest]

+[Shed]

+[Ice Chest]

+[Old Truck]

Character Domain:

[Drake Quarry]

[Drake Mine] Lvl. 3

Character Party:

Liam the Defender of the Weak. Lvl. 4 [Defender]