“We seem to believe it is possible to ward off death by following rules of good grooming.”

-Don DeLillo

==POV: Zidaun==

Gurek turned the handle and pulled the door open. Immediately a blur jumped in and attacked.

I saw it coming in my aura.

“Watch-”

The plate-mouse scratched ineffectually against his legs, not penetrating the barrier in the least. A moment later it dissolved as he kicked it in the head.

“out… Sorry it was out of range at first.”

“Eh,” Gurek grunted, “to be expected.”

“If the dungeon was really trying to do damage,” Firi frowned, “I would have expected a sneak attack with something stronger. It was a single level one monster. More evidence for this area being structured to train.”

“Hmm,” Inda said, “Tempted to say we should leave this one out of our report to properly train newbies. I just know someone would end up dying to something stupid though.”

“Yeah,” I said somberly, “seen enough people die already.”

Or come across their bodies later…

Firi smiled sadly.

“Hey,” he said, “if the next section of the dungeon doesn’t jump in difficultly too much, this will be a great place for beginners. Maybe there won’t be so many deaths due to people being unprepared.”

“Maybe,” I said.

I hoped so. Asmund was a city of a million people. There were a lot of adventurers guilds in it. The one I stayed at was the main one, due to my job. Most people there were better prepared than average. I had still seen too many people leave and never come back.

I shook myself.

“That would be nice, but for now we have a job to do.”

Gurek nodded, both weapons in hand again.

He used his foot to push the door the rest of the way open. The keep’s courtyard lay in front of us.

In the middle was a new insect. A quick inspect revealed what it was.

Monstrous Moss Groomer

Level 5

The new insect monster was two feet long, grey, and had an enlarged pair of mandibles. The mandibles had sharp edges that pushed past each other like a pair of shears.

So far the monster was staying put. Likely they wouldn’t engage until we reached a certain distance, or we engaged.

“Right,” I said, “level five, shouldn’t be any danger to us. How should we proceed?”

“No boss designation, I assume,” said Inda.

“Yeah, though I would call it a mini-boss,” I said. “It is visible, not attacking even though it can see us, also has a large open space for an arena. We could just kill it, or I could grab it, but...”

“Then we wouldn’t be able to give a proper report,” Gurek grunted. “And we have specialists coming after us, who should handle getting the report, but there is the chance that someone would be hurt without the information. Fine, fine, I’ll let the stupid thing try to attack me while we observe.”

I reached out a hand and put it on his shoulder.

“Thanks, Gurek, we appreciate it.”

“Bah, this is what they pay us for, stop getting sentimental. It’s only level five anyway, probably won’t even be able to scratch me.”

We stepped forward, Gurek still in the lead.

Stepping into the courtyard, I could see a closed portcullis in the middle of one of the walls. Other walls had closed doors. All of them had a crystal circle on them; they were all lit up red. Looks like we wouldn’t make any legitimate progress until we killed the mini-boss.

Various rubble lay at the edges of the courtyard where it had fallen from crumbling stonework. One of the other towers ended in a broken crag from where it had been sheared away. The stones of the courtyard were encrusted with moss in the shadowy corners. Pebbles, tiny fragments of the rubble, crunched underfoot as we moved.

We were still a good fifty feet from the groomer when it charged towards Gurek. It reached him quickly, and it reached forward with its mandibles, trying to pincer his leg. He hit the outside of the mandibles away with the flat of his short sword. A faint cracking sound and an intensification of the mana glow on a small spot of the mandible showed a small injury.

Pushed back by the blow, the groomer’s charge staggered off to the right side. Gurek followed it as we rotated behind him, keeping him between the monster and us.

It turned quickly towards Gurek again, its mandibles twitching together. It charged once again, but this time as it got close it jumped up, its carapace opening up to reveal fluttering wings, and its mandibles spread wide.

With a quick sidestep Gurek leaned down and brought both blades up. The flat edges of both pushed right below the monster’s head, pushing it back and flipping it upside down as it slammed into its back.

The carapace pushed open on one side, quickly turning it right side up again.

It charged again.

The next few minutes were more of the same. Finally, as it was pushed back once more, I grabbed it with stone.

“I think that is enough for tactics,” I said. “Looks like it really only has two. Charge, or charge and jump.”

“Still good to know,” Firi said. “That jump could catch someone off guard.”

I looked behind us. The door to the tower was still open.

“Okay,” I said, “this absolutely has to be deliberate. No way the door wouldn’t have closed otherwise. People are supposed to be able to retreat if this fight is too much for them.”

I checked on the stone holding the mini-boss. It was holding firm. It continued to try and thrash, but it couldn’t move much. Only its mandibles, which were clacking against each other madly, showed its impotent fury.

“Gurek, up for some testing?”

He sighed, “Sure, why not.”

He reached his arm down until the mandibles locked around it. The mandibles tensed for a moment before they relaxed open a bit. He pulled his arm back out.

“Looks like it cannot keep up pressure on its mandibles for very long,” he said.

Gurek tensed his arm a bit.

“Some damage made it through, nothing serious, I could delay it for hours. We good to kill this thing?”

I looked at the others, and with no objections raised, I nodded.

“Go ahead.”

His sword flashed out and pierced the head of the mini-boss, which promptly faded away.

The portcullis jerked and started to rise with a clanking noise. Simultaneously, the lights on the doors turned green. A small chest appeared beside the entryway to the portcullis.

When nothing else happened, Gurek spoke.

“Going to let the damage through, patch me up after we see the damage big guy.”

Gurek raised his arm and his barriers faded away. A thin line of red appeared on his arm, as though a dagger had just barely cut the flesh.

Firi reached out and tapped the line with a finger. A faint line of gold appeared in its place, which faded away, leaving intact flesh.

“Not too bad. If I had kept my skill up it probably would have gone away on its own in a few minutes,” Gurek said. “Someone with a hard leather shield should be able to deal with this. Even better if it has some iron or steel reinforcement.”

I started making notes, detailing the encounter.

“Don’t think it would go through bone,” I said, “but it would do some nasty things to most people’s flesh if they are low level.”

It was nice to have Gurek be able to do some testing with these low level monsters. He had a really pretentious class name, Wanderer of Suspended Remittance, but it was very effective. He could take a lethal blow, or much less in this case, and then suspend the damage to be dealt with later. The more intense the injury, the harder it was to hold off. Still, he didn’t need to let it all through at once. He could let the damage through a bit at a time so it could be healed. It wasn’t just strictly damage either. He could hold off exhaustion, poison, and other effects. Plus, his ability negated a certain amount of minor damage outright. It made him a fantastic bulwark for dealing with the unknown.

I compared notes with the others.

“On the next thing… the loot,” I said. “Gurek, go ahead and do the honors once I see if it’s safe.”

Gurek smiled. I knew he always enjoyed seeing the loot, even if it was minor.

As we got closer to the chest I could sense what was inside.

“No traps, go ahead.”

Gurek rubbed his hands as he knelt in front of the small chest. He opened it to reveal a single silver piece.

“Not much for us,” he said with a smile, “but adventurers at the level this boss was meant for would be thrilled.”

He scooped up the silver piece and put it away as I noted down the reward.

I gestured toward the other doors.

“Wish we had time to do everything here. Another time I guess.”

We headed forward through the open tunnel leading out of the keep; Gurek was in the lead again. Once we reached end we could see the town.

The town was in far worse shape than the keep. The stone walls of most buildings were relatively intact, but almost all of the roofs had long since collapsed and rotted away. A few buildings showed intact skeletal wooden frames. A few buildings had collapsed even further, a pair or single walls standing next to a mound of rubble. And what remained was buried under grass and creeping vines.

In the center of a square of cobblestone off to the right side of the roadway was an enormous tree. Its brown wooden trunk towered above the buildings around it as its leaves fluttered green in a gentle breeze. Below, in its shade, its roots thrust up and down through the cobblestones and the foundations around it, breaking them apart little by little. Bushes, grasses, and other small plants grew in the dirt exposed by the displaced stone.

The road extended ahead of us, ending at a gate in the wall, visible in the distance. To each side the road curved around the keep and then out of sight.

“Okay, out of town then. Got to keep going.”

Gurek just nodded, no doubt he expected that.

Slowly we proceeded down the road, until we were ambushed.

It was nothing serious; the shadows and bushes beneath the tree erupted with a small group of half a dozen mice-bugs.

Gurek got into position in the front. Inda threw two knives before they reached us, killing off two, before she drew her sabre. The long thin blade was held ready in front of her.

Gurek dispatched two before the last two ran past him.

I crouched, my fist punching downwards to smash one while the last one impaled itself on a spike of stone that rose to greet it.

“Minor ambush,” I said, as I started to make notes when it became clear nothing else was going to attack. “Numbers and surprise over power.”

“Yeah,” Inda said as she looked at the tree. “There is enough cover there to hold quite a bit more, or something larger. Even a single adventurer at level five should be able to handle the group we just dealt with, though they might be gnawed on a little. Any group that dealt with the groomer mini-boss shouldn’t have any real trouble with this.”

“I hate dealing with ambushes,” Gurek muttered.

“Remind me why you are an adventurer again?” I said, a little laughter in my voice.

He just scowled at me.

I just smirked and gave him the signal to keep going.

The path down to gate was filled with ambushes. The collapsed buildings offered plentiful cover for the relatively small monsters we had been dealing with so far. We didn’t run into anymore groomers, but lots of plate-rats, cockroaches, and plate-mice. None of them proved particularly challenging, but we were attacked from behind a few times, forcing Firi to deflect attacks with his transparent golden shield.

Finally, however, we reached the gate. To each side another two doors set into the stone of the wall.

Upon the gate was a symbol I didn’t recognize and a now familiar circle of crystal. It was an arch with a wavy line running across it the bottom part of it.

Gurek touched the door and it flashed red.