Okay, here's that second chapter I promised.

Enjoy!

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As the group entered the dungeon, a notice popped up in front Steel's face.

You have entered a dungeonName:Furry HellDifficulty:Level 3-7Description:A new dungeon filled with many furry enemies and dangers. 5 floors deep.

Steel paused and read the description slowly. He gazed over to the other people in his party to see they had confused faces as well, likely seeing the same notice he was seeing. "Furry Hell, what a strange name for a dungeon. Do you think it has to do with your friend Steel?" Mary asked gently.

Steel nodded sadly, "Most likely anyway. She was really soft and fluffy, so I guess this a reflection of that aspect of her."

Mary gave him a look, than glanced at Shadefur, than looked back to Steel. "Are you a furry lover?"

"No, a fluffy lover. There is a clear difference." He answered flatly.

Nothing else was said on the matter.

"Okay, I believe that the first floor is the same as the last time I was here, but I have no idea about the other 4 floors. Out of curiosity, what is your level Mary?"

Mary tilted her head, "Well, originally I was level 25. However, the backlash from over extended mana usage has set my abilities back to level 10. Also, my mana regen is not very good, so I'm pretty off at the moment."

'Yet, you are still strong enough to send anyone you want flying.' Steel thought to himself. "Well, it seems that you are still stronger than this dungeon."

Mary shook her head quickly, "You misunderstand Steel. The level 3-7 difficulty is meant for parties of those levels. Between us three, Whisper, and Shadefur, I would say we are not prepared for this dungeon without supplies."

Steel whacked his head. He had been so focused on entering he'd forgot to get the most essential thing for a dungeon raid; potions. Well, he still refilled his original potion amount, but basic potions wouldn't last long in a dungeon like this. Especially since Mary would need the mana potions due to her low regen.

"Okay, let’s just explore this floor and leave. We'll sell whatever we find and use the money to find a room. We will save the rest of the dungeon for later, maybe knocking the second floor out if we have the time. Err, do we have to travel the entire dungeon every time we enter?"

Mary nodded her head, "Larger dungeons will have a floor adventurers can teleport to, usually every 5th or 10th floor, once reached, but for this size of dungeon we will be able to teleport to the 3rd floor after we get to it. So if we only finish the first floor, we will have to go through it again."

Steel nodded, "Makes sense. Are we likely to encounter anyone else in the dungeon?"

Mary sighed and gave Steel a pitying look, "You have no idea how a dungeon works do you? Every party or solo that enters the dungeon appears in a different instance of the dungeon, except for the room where the staircase is and the teleport room. Eventually, a merchant stall will be found at the teleport room, but it'll likely be empty when we reach it. I admit it's different at the ancient dungeons; at those places it is deep enough that everyone is in the same instance at the same time."

Steel shrugged, he knew he didn't know anything. That was one of the reasons he was happy escorting Mary. She was his personal library of magic related knowledge, at least for now.

"Okay, let’s use this raid to inspect the dungeon and allow Echo and Shadefur to gain fighting experience. Will Whisper be able to fight at all?"

"No, if I give her the mana to fight I will not be able to fight effectively. I also don't have enough to dismiss her without suffering additional penalties, so she'll be here for the rest of the trip."

"Why does it cost man to dismiss her instead of costing to keep her here?"

"She's my familiar, not my summoned creature. That's the main difference between the two types as well." Mary answered.

"Can I learn to summon either of those?" He asked eagerly.

"Not sure, it depends on different factors besides what you have control over. That's something to check when we return to the tower. Anyway, let’s hurry up and explore! I want to see my first dungeon!" She grinned and clapped her hands excitedly.

Steel patted her back, quickly removing his hand as he felt the tell-tale warmth of the geas in his hand. "Let’s go then, come on squad."

They exited the initial tunnel and entered the first room in the dungeon, the split as Steel recalled. To his surprise, there were beasts in the room. A group of 8 rats were scurrying around the area, and perked up at Steel's presence in the room. They bared their teeth at him and hissed. Steel quickly looked for their information.

Opponent InformationNameLevelThreatHealth[tr]Cave rat3E35DescriptionA rat typically found in caves. Like their grassland brethren, they have low health, but high attack and speed which they use to out-maneuver their enemies. For some reason, the pelts of these cave rats seem better than others.

"Looks like cave rats. Is everyone ready for a fight?" Steel readied his shield.

Echo nodded, taking out the short sword Eric had given him for his training. His face was defiant and ready for a fight, yet still nervous at the prospect of his first fight. Shadefur was growling and swiping the floor with his paws, eager for a fight. Mary summoned two fireballs in her hand and grinned, clearly excited about using her magic to battle for once.

Steel took his battle stance, "Attack!"

With a loud chitter of squeaks, the rats dashed at them with all their speed. Steel charged ahead first, careful to not actually use "Charge" and miss his prey. As expected, the first rat jumped to his right side away from the shield and jumped at him. Grinning, Steel drew a hidden dagger out of his shield and sliced the rat as it flew at him.

-10 slice damage.

Eric had given him the hidden dagger as an alternative to close quarters fighting. All shields were made with a sheath for a knife in them, but few shield users actually used the feature because they had swords in their other hand. Steel had taken to it quite easily, but hadn't received any knife related skills due to the type of training he was in.

The rat jumped back and darted away, leaving Steel alone. He turned around toward his group. Echo was fighting a rat on his own, his small size easily dealing with the rat's speed. He lunged forward to slice at the rat, than jumped back when the rat retaliated. He ducked a flying rat that had leaped at him from behind, and rolled away to dodge the other rat's lunge at him.

Mary had surrounded herself with fire, and was launching mini fireballs at the rats. Her defense was solid, but her fireballs were easily dodged by the rats running around her. She hissed in annoyance and launched a larger fireball at one. It hit the rat square on and knocked it back into the wall with a squeak. It lay there and didn't move again.

Shadefur was battling 4 of the rats herself, speed for speed. She breathed out a smokescreen at her flank and focused on the rats in front of her. One ran up and bit into her leg, savagely shaking its little body back and forth. Shadefur growled and bit the rat with her teeth, killing it. However, the rat locked into her leg with its death, preventing her from using her leg properly.

Steel activated Shield Cover, and jumped to her aid. His shield took the brute force of the rat tackles, and received a little damage.

-5

-5

-5

Nothing too big, but the fact he was taking damage meant they were tough little bastards. Steel focused his darkness mana into his shield to activate the Darktacle, which darted out and wrapped around one of the rats. He had the whip rear back and threw it into Mary's fire shield, where it impacted and died from the fire.

While he did that, the other two rats had darted behind his shield and sank their teeth into his legs.

-15

-15, bleed inflicted

Cursing, He stabbed the knife into one of them, inflicting 15 damage, and the two released their grips. He Shield Bashed at the left one, but it jumped away and used the opening to bit his shield arm.

-15

Annoyed now, he activated one of his new skills, Shield Slam. Faster than Shield Bash, his shield pounded the rat into the ground, delivering a critical hit and putting the rat out of his misery. (correct use of words here) A yelp of pain alerted him to Shadefur's predicament.

Her smokescreen had worn off, and another rat had joined the remaining one to bite at her legs. Her health was now at the halfway point, and slowly dropping due to the bleed effect. Steel roared out both his Rallying Cry and Leader's Roar, finishing off the last of his stamina. He chugged a stamina potion as he leaped toward one of the rats.

One had been stunned by the roar, and he used the opportunity to pierce it with an Earth Piercer, one of the new spells he had learned in training from Mary. Basically, it was what he had been doing with Earth Wall already, but in its proper form that used less mana. The rat was pierced straight through the head, delivering a severe critical hit. The other rat had evidently decided Steel was the more dangerous target, and had used Shadefur's body as a launching platform to fly at Steel. It came at him, its mouth open and teeth pointing at him in a mad rage.

Steel put his foot back, focused his stamina, and reared his shield arm back. He shot it forward with devastating force, impacting the rat head on and sending it flying into the wall, where it left a dent in it.

"Shield Falcon Punch!" He felt the need to say the name as he did so, for no better reason than it was flashy enough to deserve it.

As he regained his footing, he found Echo and Mary staring at him in amazement, apparently having finished the rest of the rats off. This was confirmed when the battle notification popped up.

Battle ResultsYou and your party have won a battle against 8 cave rats

+400 exp

+6 rat bodies

+2 burned rat bodies

"Steel that was amazing! Your finishing move is quite impressive." Mary clapped. Echo also clapped, a look of clear admiration on his face. Steel would have bowed, but he was more concerned with his pet at the moment. He knelt down and pried the dead rat of Shadefur's leg, wincing as she whimpered from the pain.

"Don't worry girl, I'll take care of you." He whispered as he threw the rat away and petted her. He stood back and pointed his shield at the group. This was something he had wanted to try out for a while now.

"Milna's Blessing."

He focused the spell through his shield, but nothing happened. Evidently, it was only the type of mana that the shield could use, or he could only use Earth and Darkness. Either way, he used the spell normally to heal Shadefur back to full health. She shook herself and barked happily, rubbing her head against his leg affectionately. He smiled and patted her.

"Feel better now?"

She barked and ran around the cave, collecting the rat corpses and piling them up in front of him, her tail wagging back and forth. "Good girl." He rubbed her head some more, making her fall to the ground and expose her belly. Steel turned to Echo and Mary, the latter starting to drool from the cuteness overload. "Do you guys mind playing with her? I need to skin these rats."

There was no hesitation from either one, and they rushed to pet Shadefur's belly and coo to her. Well, the one not mute cooed anyway.

Steel rat down and began skinning the rats with the new skinning knife he had received from Bob a while back. Thankfully the majority had useful skins, the exceptions being the one burned by Mary's fire. Those he removed the burned parts and stored the meat as "cooked meat". After skinning the first rat, he was happy to find the extra fluffiness of the fur meant a higher price of loot.

"This place may be a hell, but all the fluffy things here will certainly help us to make a lot of silver." Steel whistled happily as he skinned.

Mary looked over from her playtime, "Be sure to remove the cores from the bodies Steel."

"Ah yes, thank you for reminding me." Steel gave his thanks as she returned to rubbing fur. Steel inspected the bodies, and found the core nestled in the chest, sticking out of the fur. Of the six he could fine, none were unique and all were similar in size and shape. The core resembled a black stone about the size of a peanut, and lacked the sine of a crystal. Steel stored the furs, the cores, and the meat in his inventory, noting with satisfaction the rest of the rat disappeared when he was finished. He thanked the developers for being so considerate to the players.

"Okay guys, enough with the relaxation. Time to move on to the next fight!"