The entrance to the dungeon, much like the tavern, had very few players and NPC raiders walking around. They passed the "tax keeper" without incident, ignoring his averted gaze as they entered the dungeon for the second time. Steel checked their supplies one more time before they entered:

-One escape rope, 5 uses

-One eyeglass for peaking around corners

-10 pieces of monster bait, single use

-15 ration packs, single use

-One book on the basics of dungeons

-One magic bag, capable of holding up to 50 pounds weight without adding to its own weight

-5 rare potions of each type, single use

-10 common potions of each type

Satisfied that they were actually prepared this time, Steel nodded, signaling their entrance into the Furry Hell Dungeon. Like before, they wandered into the tunnel for a while until the light from the outside disappeared behind them. After the final turn, they came across a blue sigil on the ground; similar to the one Steel had seen at the stair room.

"Looks like that's out ticket to the second floor." Steel announced, moving onto the glowing symbol on the ground. Instantly, his surroundings changed and he found himself back in the stair room, alone and no glowing sigil anywhere in sight.

"Note to self, sigils are one way and instant." He muttered to himself, feeling stupid he had tried the sigil without asking Mary first.

Luckily, the three of them appeared momentarily before he had waited too long. Mary was rather surprised by the whole experience.

"Amazing; even the mage tower doesn't have such seamless magical transportation. I didn't even feel a change of magic power, as if I just walked through a door." She muttered to herself, not aware of her surroundings.

Steel rolled his eyes and ran his finger across her neck, inciting a scream and jump from Mary, who cowered behind Shadefur. Poking her head up to look around, she focused on the laughing Steel who was rolling on the ground. "Ha ha ha, oh Mary, I didn't think such a powerful princess would be so easily scared." He spat out, "Hopefully, heh, this will teach you to pay more attention next time."

Mary glowered at him and folded her arms. "That's not funny Steel; it could have been really dangerous. What if I blasted you with a fireball?"

Steel stopped laughing, Lancelot's flying body still fresh in his mind. "Right, my bad, sorry about that Mary. I just couldn't resist teasing you after seeing your serious face."

"Well don't do it again. Look what happened to Echo." She pointed at the little slave, who was frozen in a kind of defense mechanism. They waved their hands in front of his face, but he was frozen tight. Finally, Steel gave him a nugie to wake him up.

"You okay Echo?" Steel asked. Echo looked confused, but nodded after a few seconds. He pointed at the staircase and cocked his head. "Yup, we are going down to the second floor." Steel nodded, "Shall we proceed?" He took Echo and Mary's hand gently as he walked toward the staircase, than ruined the moment by yanking it out of Mary's hand and blowing on it.

She gave him an evil smile, "I'd say that's a good start to your apology."

------------------------

The staircase was much shorter than they expected, only winding down for 5 minutes before opening into the next floor. Using the crooked spyglass, Steel verified an empty room before stepping out. From the looks of it, the floor was essentially the same as the previous floor. The room was a cave, with torchlights in the wall and a cold rocky floor.

"Clear." Steel stared down into the first tunnel, "Shadefur, smell!"

Hearing the command, Shadefur dropped her nose and sniffed around the room. Mary raised an eyebrow, "Don't you think it's kind of demeaning to make her act like a dog?"

Steel shrugged, "She's a canine, and so using her special talents to help us isn't demeaning at all. I'm sure she'd protest if she had a complaint."

"She's a wolf, how would she know to complain?"

Steel paused, "Oh right. I forgot because she's so intuitive."

"That's a perk from a pet contract, not from her intelligence. You can't forget she's a wild animal, even worse a monster. If the pack ever disappeared, she'd be free to follow her instincts; which includes hunting and eating things like us." Mary cautioned, "She may be your ally, but it's unlikely you'll ever be friends."

Slightly saddened, Steel waited until Shadefur returned before he spoke again. "Smell anything?" He asked the wolf.

Shadefur barked, which he took as a no. She'd be growling if she actually smelled anything, especially if it could be eaten.

They made their way down the tunnel, keeping their eyes out for anything dangerous. The rocky walls continued down for a while before opening into a cave. Unlike the previous caves, this one was elongated. To be more descriptive, the cave had two tunnel entrances, but the cave followed the left tunnel for a little longer before shrinking down to a tunnel entrance. Steel imagined a "6" like shape, one entrance at the top and the other on the circle.

"Be careful guys, I don't know which way to go now, or the type of enemies that are here." Steel readied his shield, "Let's. . ."

He was interrupted by Mary rummaging in the adventurer kit, which she had insisted on carrying. She pulled out something and threw it into the middle of the cave.

"Mary, what was that?"

"Monster bait." She said proudly, "If we can't see them, then let’s bring them to us."

Steel sighed, "Okay, I admit that's a good plan at its core. However, can you tell me two things." He held up two fingers, "'How effective is that bait?', and 'How many monsters are in this cave?'"

Mary cocked her head, "Umm, I don't know. Is that bad? I just wanted to attract them to us. . .uh oh."

"At least you understand now." Steel nodded, "Now ready your spells. Also, if you have one of those big spells you're so proud of, I advise you to get that one ready." Steel had no doubt that anything made and sold by the mage's tower was quality.

Sure enough, things began to move in the cave. Besides a few rats appearing from the shadows, the group was very shocked to see the stones moving toward the bait. Steel quickly focused on the stones.

Opponent InformationNameLevelThreatHealthRocky Armadillo7E120DescriptionA variant type of armadillo found in "Furry Hell". It has gained a rock hard shell capable of blocking attacks from predators. Sluggish and tough, they don't often attack others except when hungry. Hunger can awaken rage, which raises their threat level by a level. Like their namesake dungeon, they have furry underbellies.

"Mary, how tough are armadillos normally?" Steel pressed, "Anything useful to help us?"

Mary shrugged, "All I know is that they are tough and hard to kill, but not real attackers."

Steel nodded, "That's kind of expected, but those jerks earlier mentioned something was speedy on this floor. That means they have a special ability, or there is another type of monster on this floor."

By then, the armadillos had reached the bait, and were moving around in a confused manner, searching for their food. When the rats began to go by them, they reacted.

The closest armadillos rolled up into a ball, and began to rotate at high speed. In a flash, they had run over the closest rats, prompting the rest to flee back to the shadows. The armadillos began swarming the smashed rats, fighting each other for a piece to eat.

Steel shuddered, "Well that answers that. That's a freaking terrifying ability those little bastards have."

Echo tugged at Steel's armor, raising his sword and shaking his head. "Yeah, I'm not sure you'll be effective against them. Stay here for a moment." Steel took a knee and analyzed the armadillos.

'Always tough and durable, they use speed to increase their destructive power.' He reasoned, 'Given how those jerks survived, they must have an obvious weakness." Steel considered the Hero Party; they had a knight, a fire mage, an ice mage, a barbarian girl, and a ranger. The ranger obviously had trouble, which eliminated his dps from the equation. The ice mage did use it, so maybe she was effective. Steel seriously doubted the asshole knight was good for anything, though he had to grudgingly admit the guy was probably strong.

'We have a tank, a fire mage, an assassin, and a warrior; the last two being. . .not leveled up yet.' Steel smacked his head at the realization. They boss rat had given them enough points for a second level boost for Echo and Shadefur, and he was unconscious after it.

"Echo, Shadefur, have you leveled up yet?" He asked quietly. They shook their heads. "Right, well go ahead while I think of a plan. Echo, no skills this time."

They nodded as they sat down and focused on their own screens. Echo's status menu appeared in front of Steel, asking him where he would like to distribute the stat points.

Status WindowName:EchoAlignment:Neutral/LawfulLevel:3Class:SlaveRace:Human VariantGender:Male. . .

TitlesSlave, Apprentice of Eric Swiftleg, ObserverFame:0Infamy:0Experience:1250/6000

Health:150 / 150Health Regen:3/ SecMana:70 / 70Mana Regen:1.4/ SecStamina:75 / 75Stamina Regen:1.5/ Sec

Vitality:15Agility:15Intelligence:14Wisdom:14Strength:15Endurance:15Leadership:0Luck:5Charm:50Faith:0

Elemental ResistancesFire:0Water:0Wind:0Earth:10Light:0Darkness:5

Skills Known:Aura cut, minor

Observe

Blade Rush

Steel chuckled to himself as he read through the stat menu. Even though he was small, Echo actually had stats comparable to a regular player. Granted, he was much lower than a normal player at level 3, it was a lot more impressive considering his status as a slave and his young age. 'Wonder if he'll gain some boosts when he gets older?' Steel wondered to himself, 'Besides that, what the heck is up here? The 50 charm explains his popularity with the ladies, but why does he have observe as a skill?'

Players could observe and identify as an innate skill not listed with the others, and from what Steel had picked up NPC characters operated in a similar way. Yet for some reason, Echo had his 'Observe' as an active and passive skill. It wasn't a big deal really, yet it was profoundly odd. Aura Slash and Blade Rush were expected; the former being acquired last level and the latter from training with Eric.

NoticeYour battle pet "Shadefur" has chosen to improve speedFor advancing in speed to the second level, your pet has gained a new ability:Static SpeedEffect: Boosts speed by 15% for 10 seconds. Contact with fur has a 35% chance to inflict small electric damage

"Huh, good job Shadefur." Steel exclaimed, "I had no idea you could grow like that."

Shadefur hung her tongue out and. . . smiled; or at least the canine version of it. Yet Steel couldn't help but feel like there was more behind it than a normal wolfy smile. Ignoring that for now, Steel put all 5 point for Echo into strength, raising the slave's stamina to 100.

"You done yet Steel? Those rocky fellows seem to be almost done eating." Mary reported from the spyglass.

"Preparations are done over here." He said as he got back up, "I still don't know how to kill them though. . .hmmm."

------------------------

A few minutes later, Shadefur charged into cave with Echo on his back. The wolf charged straight through the horde of armadillos; jumping and dodging through their bodies with startling grace. Echo was holding some monster bait in his hand, letting the smell spread through the air as he launched a few Aura Cuts to attract attention. The armadillos were immediately alert, either from the smell or the attacks. As the duo reached the other side of the cave, the monsters rolled up and began rotating. Like a squadron of birds they spun out in a killing formation toward their prey, the wind screaming as they sped forwards.

The armadillos were much faster than the wolf, quickly closing the distance as the duo reached the wall. Instead of turning or stopping, Shadefur ran faster, activating her new skill as the monsters drew closer. She ran straight at the wall, never stopping as Echo used the last of his stamina to fire a few more Aura Cuts in a vain attempt to slow down their pursuers. They reached the wall, and that's when they struck.

Using her speed, Shadefur took a few steps up the wall before kicking off with all her strength. She flew over the armadillos, which could not turn or stop in time to avoid the wall. They smashed into it and each other, creating a series of loud noises that exploded through the cave. The duo landed safely on the ground, taking a moment to taunt the monsters with their tongues.

Enraged, the armadillos got back into their ball forms and began spinning again, gaining the red glow to signal the activation of rage mode. Shadefur shot back toward the tunnel where she had come from, using her skill to speed away as fast as she could. The bowling squad of death soon followed, rolling much faster this time and leaving burn marks on the ground.

Realizing she couldn't outrun them this time, Shadefur began making long zigs and zags as she ran, taking advantage of their slow ability to turn quickly. She suddenly cut to the right, an almost perfect ninety degree turn, while Echo struggled to hang on. The armadillos were slow to turn after her, especially at their high speed, but managed a sharp motorcycle like turn after a few seconds.

Shadefur was in trouble now though, because her ability had worn off and was unable for a few seconds. Panting, she ran as fast as she could, but the armadillos were quickly closing the distance between them. As the armadillos reached her, Shadefur split.

3 Shadefur's burst in different directions: one went left, another went right, and the third kept moving forward. The armadillos were instantly confused, but only for a few moments. Their sight was a secondary sense when they were rolled up, relying more on smell and the tremors of fleeing prey through the ground. They picked up the monster bait scent and the paw step of the wolf a few seconds later, but it was enough.

Shadefur's fur crackled as her Static Step became available again, and she resumed her course back toward the tunnel entrance. Even with her increased speed, she still could only prevent them from closing in on her too fast. Bending her knees, she jumped with all her might into the tunnel, disappearing into the dark with Echo on her back.

The armadillos, of course, attempted to follow them into the tunnel. They gathered together to fit into the tunnel, and spun ahead, and then straight down. The tunnel floor disappeared beneath the armadillos, falling deep into a pit that had mysteriously appeared beneath their rolled up forms.

To be more specific, Steel had created a thin floor layer that had easily collapsed from the pressure and force from their spinning. He had made the pit deeper in return for not using spikes, allowing for greater room to fit all the beasts. "Okay Mary, now!" He called out.

Stepping out from the shadows, Mary manifested fireball after fireball that formed a ring around her back, outlining her figure like a demon goddess wreathed in flames. She held her hand out, and the fireballs shot down her arm into the hole like a gun. The hole erupted in fiery explosions as they each landed on target, bathing the hole in flames.

The group gathered around the hole, taking out a skewer with food already stuck on it.

"Okay guys, time for a lunch break."

Mary gave Steel a very dry look, "I'm not sure how I feel about this kind of strategy Steel. It feels kind of like we're cheating the system."

"Maybe, but can you say you didn't enjoy doing that?"

Mary cocked her head, than smiled wryly, "No, I did enjoy it, you're right. Still, you sure it's okay to use their dead bodies to cook our food?"

"Not like they can complain anymore about it. Good thing my theory about fire magic was correct, they can be cooked if heated enough from the outside. Those shells act just like coal when heated hot enough, making a perfect bonfire."

Shadefur barked happily with her skewer in her mouth; tail wagging as she enjoyed the spoils of her work.

----------------------

So, this is the first real chase scene I've done, what do you guys think?

I'll try to get two chapters out tomorrow for you guys, wish me luck and thanks for reading!