Stepping forward, Ruskin kept a lookout inside the tunnel ahead; however, when he got close to the entrance, a door dropped out of the ceiling blocking the path. Other than the strange mechanism in the center of the door. It is entirely unadorned.

Ruskin studied the mechanism and the three spinning dials with several pictures of various animals. Frowning, he turned to the rest of us and shrugged his shoulders. "Seems simple enough. We need the correct order."

Excited, I smiled at them, "isn't it obvious?" But all I got was blank stares from them except Amy, who grinned but kept her mouth shut. "Remember the murals in the tunnels," then I pointed at the dial that showed birds, boars, fish, and other various beasts.

Still, no one answered until Fredrick stepped aside and said with an irritated tone, "please, your highness enlighten us."

Gaping at him, as I could tell it annoyed him, I moved forward slowly and explained with a small voice. "In the first tunnel, there was a mural of a female adventurer placing a stone with a bird carved into it on a podium. When we entered the second, I saw the same mural. Only it was a stone with a boar. Finally, inside the lid of the treasure chest, there is another with a fish," I said while pointing at the chest behind us.

As I explained what I assumed was the correct order, Ruskin had been spinning the dials, and when he finished the last. The door slowly rose back into the ceiling, and a small coin dropped, with Nalle written on one side. Like the one with Amelia that dropped when she puzzled out the tiles. After Ruskin had examined it, he passed it to Fredrick, who just grunted and tossed it to me.

With the path no longer blocked, Fredrick had us back into position, and we made our way down the tunnel, that this time had no murals, so we must have completed that test at least. When we reached the end of this hall, we noticed it had looped back around to the rat room, but now another entrance opened on the west wall.

When we stopped to inspect the room to make sure nothing changed. Amy noticed my silence and demanded we stop to take a brief break. Taking out a wrapped sandwich, Amy split it with me and grinned, then turned with a glare at Fredrick. "You should apologize to Nalle right now. That was uncalled for you went way too far back there."

Fredrick, for his part, just crossed his arms and shrugged, "I see no reason to be so smug. All she did was stare at pictures drawn on a wall. What a waste of time I came down here to fight and work on my class skills, not play with puzzles."

This time Ruskin stepped forward, "you understand we would have had to go back and look for clues if Nalle hadn't been, as you say, wasting our time."

Shrugging, he just sneered. "so what we would have found them right away once we started looking just because she noticed them on the way don't make her so great."

It wasn't a secret, in the group, that Fredrick didn't like Nalle merely put up with her because that's what he was told to do. He didn't know why, but he always felt something was off with the weird Elf.

During Fredricks's rant, I just sat in my spot, slowly eating my sandwich, trying not to listen. Although it hurt, I knew Fredrick was a crucial part of the team, and we grew up together. Even if he never liked me, he was always there when needed. I looked up at Amy, who had her fists clenched tight, and when she glanced down, I gave her a small smile, letting her know I was fine.

Ruskin and Leen, for their parts, looked elsewhere and ate their own rations. Although they didn't agree with Fredrick on a lot, they too felt somewhat uncomfortable around Nalle. Honestly, if it weren't for the fact Amy wouldn't leave her side, they probably wouldn't hang around with Nalle at all. However, they didn't resent Nalle nearly as much as Fredrick did, probably because they were not told to accompany Nalle all the time since they were children.

After Fredrick stuffed his own sandwich in his mouth, he stood and beckoned everyone to get ready. He said nothing as he knew he went too far and didn't want to anger Amy further.

Amy took most of my sandwich back and wrapped it up, then whispered into my ear. "Don't worry once we're powerful enough. We can start diving just the two of us." She stood, pulled me up, and we got into position. Looking over at the others, I could see their embarrassment, but they gave a sympathetic nod my way, and I smiled back.

(None of them knew what a powerful adversary Fredrick just made, but that's a story for the future.)

The next room was around thirty feet up the passage, and the room itself was thirty feet east to west and sixty feet north to south. The tunnel opened on the east wall on the south side of the room.

Following the new tunnel, as usual, Ruskin cloaked and peered around the corner before pulling back and returning to our side. "Looks like a goblin brawler flanked by two goblin archers all level 6.

They're all waiting at the exit to the room on the north wall. Approximately sixty feet that will give the archers room to take shots before we get to them." We all turned to Fredrick as one to await his plan.

After thinking for a few moments, he declared, "let's use the same plan as last time Nalle takes the archer on the left while Amy goes right, and I will get the focus of the brawler."

"Okay, let's go." Off we went as soon as our group moved, things immediately went wrong. Fredrick ran around the corner, and the second he was fully in the open, the goblin archers on the right shot an arrow that lodged exactly in the knee joint. Stopping him in his tracks while the other archer hit him in his shield arms elbow joint before he could raise it. Causing him to cry out and drop his shield. The brawler sprinted forward with hate boiling in his eyes that shocked the group.

I noticed the goblin archers getting ready to fire again, so I cast freeze' on the one on the left. Knowing Amy could get to the other quick, making it temporarily turn into a frozen statue, then began channeling my fireball.

Amy dashed forward at her full sprint, reaching it in less than four seconds. Unfortunately, enough time for it to get off another shot at the still stunned Fredrick. Ramming her sword through her target. To Amy's surprise, this did not kill it. So she yanked it out and swung it in a diagonal, almost slicing the goblin in two from shoulder to hip.

At nearly the same time, my Fireball exploded, ending the other goblin, making bits of it stick to the wall behind where it was shooting from.

Luckily for Fredrick, the third arrow just glanced off his helmet, and he could bring his short sword up in time to parry the brawler. After locking down the brawler's hatchet, it grabbed a dirty knife from its waist sheath and stabbed at Fredricks elbow joint barely missing. Just as the goblin prepared to pull back, a long knife sank through the back of its throat, ending the battle.

Breathing hard, Fredrick sat down after glancing around, making sure no more enemies were nearby.

Gnarleen, who had stayed back in the entry, ran forward to examine Fredricks's injuries winced as she saw the arrows sticking from two joints in his armor. "I told you to wear the pauldrons," she lectured him. "I don't care if you think there to bulky this would not have happened if they had been there."

Fredrick rolled his eyes, not sure how pauldrons would help but grunted, "Yeah, I'll remember that next dive. But didn't this seem suspicious this is a beginner instance? why would they not give us time to get into position? Also, why did all three seem focused on me? That arrow was flying before I even stepped into the room. that archer could not have had time to aim properly."

As Fredrick questioned this, he stared with suspicion at Nalle, who was checking on Amy, who seemed to have gotten a cut on her arm at some point. Shrugging at himself, knowing that there was no way Nalle could be responsible. He began taking off the sections of armor Leen needed to be removed to get the arrows out.

When Leen removed the arrows, they turned to motes of light. Along with the remains of the goblins and a portion split amongst the five of them. However, it seemed to Fredrick as though he gained less than the rest.

Amy excitedly exclaimed, "I leveled," then turned to Nalle, who smiled and nodded to Amy. Seeing that Nalle was still silent, she understood that Fredrick really upset her this time. Amy Decided they may have to rush their plans to create their own party. Although she was good friends with all three of them, she couldn't believe it when Leen or Ruskin didn't back up Nalle earlier. Everyone knows Nalle is weird and doesn't really understand social niceties too well, but it's cute, mostly.

I Sat down next to Amy and began cleaning and bandaging the cut on her arm. Thinking about the strange feeling of Deja vu, I always feel, but since entering the dungeon, it has magnified.

It sometimes seems that I'm just living according to someone's script, and honestly, it scares me. Then looking at Amy, who is happily reading something on her status screen. I smile, but I'm not alone. I will talk about this with Amy later when we're not fighting monsters.