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“Hello!” - Noemi waved to a familiar face. It was Tikan, a companion from her very first quest.

“Hi, Noemi.” - Tikan knew Noemi well, since she and Tador already ran a few errands together.

Tikan was in a group of three rats, a lone human scout with a longbow was sitting next to them, on a pavement.

“This is Noemi.” - Tikan introduced the lizard to his group. - “Noemi, this is Ulryk, Estera, and Nathaniel.”

Nathaniel just raised his hand as a welcome and remained silent.

Ulryk was Rooster just like Tikan, he was wearing leather armor and wielding a spiked club and triangular shield made out of a hide. Estera was from Serpent Sorority, her weapon of choice was a crossbow like it was for most guild recruits, but she also specialized in alchemy and her main task was identifying herbs for Augmi.

When everyone was ready, Nathaniel led the party down the stairs at the city's famous fountain and stopped in front of a single steel door that was the beginning of a route to the final boss of this layer.

“I'll go first, stay where you are until called.” - Nathaniel relayed to his teammates, opened the door, and disappeared.

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“Road clear. No signs of anomalies. We can go.” - Nathaniel declared after his return.

“What do you mean by anomalies?” - Noemi curiously asked.

Nathaniel looked at Noemi. From the expression, he was kind of as indifferent as Arath. - “Don't you know?” - He then looked at the rest of the group, as If asking if anyone else wants to hear. - “This dungeon is just prone to seasonal changes. It sometimes spawns lone monstrosities unrecorded in the library, it always happens when surroundings are altered.”

“Thank you for explaining.”

“No problem.”

Nathaniel led the party through a straight passage made of red bricks. There was no end in sight. The ceiling had an arched shape and there was a single steel pipe in its center, with two glowing pipes at its sides.

“Are you new to this dungeon, Noemi?” - Nathaniel asked.

“It's my first time.”

“It'll be a long and boring way, do you want to hear more about it?”

“Sure, why not.”

“Do you see these cracks, fissures, and holes?”

“Yes.”

“It's how the monsters travel. When the dungeon isn't conquered, these small tunnels get larger over time, what allows bigger creatures to appear. Guilds occasionally give missions to block some of the more dangerous gaps. It doesn't prevent hazards completely, but allows us to buy more time. The main problem is, If you completely block the passages, corrosive monsters will appear...”

Nathaniel raised his hand, to signal the party to halt, then knelt, pulled out a lunette.

“Ehh... carrion worms.” - Nathaniel sighed in dissatisfaction. - “Those aren't dangerous, but they don't appear before the acid ones... so you know the deal.”

Noemi moved goggles to her eyes.

“Proceed slowly, we shouldn't encounter those here, but you'll lure them out If you cause commotion...”

Nathaniel continued to lead the group until they traveled two hundred meters and spotted a large, two-meter long, fat white grub feasting on a rat's corpse. The scout lowered his voice, then requested - “Wait here. I'll deal with this one silently.”

The man pulled out a dagger then snuck to the creature and pierced the area near its neck, green fluid oozed out of the wound. The passage was clear. He waved to the party to come, then explained.

“Bad news. It had to lure acid spewers here. To anyone who still doesn't know, they can shot acid up to five meters far. The tunnel turns right, just ahead of us, so it shouldn't be a big problem If we plan this out well.”

“Are three jars of flaming oil enough?” - Estera asked while searching her bags.

“Two ought to do.” - Nathaniel responded. - “But stay prepared.”

Minutes later, the archer was at the corner. The man pulled out a mirror shard and used it to count the creatures safely. There were six of them, one was sticking to the ceiling.

On average, a single acid spewer was one meter in size. Their dark-green, slug-like bodies were having no exceptional features other than pair of frontal nozzles used to discharge acid.

Both jars were ignited simultaneously and tossed into the tunnel.

Nathaniel backed away and precautiously prepared a bow, then waited for over a minute for the smoke to die out. He took the mirror piece and checked again. All creatures were charred black.

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There were a few monster encounters, but the party reached the final location without larger problems. They stopped in front of a steel door, similar to the ones at the entrance. However, something was off, everyone could sense a putrid smell coming from beneath the door.

“Damn it!” - Nathaniel cursed. - “A carrion queen. We're not making it any farther.”

“I didn't come here to give up!” - Noemi protested. - “Can you explain what's going on?”

“A big towering worm, size of a house. It's immobile, nothing but stacked folds of fat with a big round maw at the top. Not dangerous by itself at all, but it breeds all kinds of worms and produces toxic fumes that heal their wounds.” - Nathaniel kicked a rock in anger.

“The door is small, it's the pivotal point.” - Ulryk noted. - “All we need is a plan.”

“We can't deal with all the acid spewers, the next chamber is too vast.” - Nathaniel complained.

“My shield should withstand their attacks.” - Noemi mentioned.

“She's right. It's coated in resin.” - Estera added while examining the shield up close.

“I suggest Noemi takes the frontline. She has javelins. If the situation is manageable, she will rush inside to not obstruct the field of view, so others can shot.” - Ulryk suggested.

“I will give Noemi and Ulryk an echeveria powder, it'll protect their lungs from the fumes. If we locate the queen, I can use glowworm extract to deal with her.”

Everyone looked at each other and nodded in agreement.

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Noemi pressed the handle to unlock the door, but she didn't open the all the way. Sentinel silently looked at her teammates to confirm that they are all ready. She pushed the door to enter, but it was blocked by a fat carrion grub, so she forcibly pushed it away.

Noemi stabbed a few worms in front of her to death, then left the door open at an angle of sixty degrees.

“One acid spewer, no glowworms, leeches, four centipedes...” - The lizard girl informed.

A projectile of corrosive fluid splashed against Noemi's shield, but it had no effect, since the girl hid excellently. She confidently decided to advance, while Nathaniel was getting rid of leeches that were advancing at their frontline companion. Tikan aimed his massive crossbow and rendered the spewer unable to fight.

The problems started after two centipedes wrapped themselves around Noemi's shield, immobilizing it under their heavy weight, while the third centipede started wrapping itself around the girl's feet.

Archers couldn't safely take down these overgrown insects, so Ulryk immediately rushed in. He was stopped by the fourth centipede that was lurking on the floor. It raised its head in an attempt to bite the approaching warrior, flexed its neck, and launched two fast, successive attacks, but Ulryk managed to evade the first and block the second, then swung his club at the creature and pulverized its skull.

At the time, Noemi pierced the belly of the first enemy, who tried to chomp its way through her natural scale armor at the neck. It crushed a few scales, but there was no blood loss. Yellow fluids oozed out the wounded animal, staining Noemi's fingers and spear. The sentinel gently shook the corpse off.

In the meantime, Ulryk came to assist Noemi and attacked the centipede at her feet, forcing it to unreel. The agile insect propelled towards the rat warrior, so he leaped away, but only to realize that he was in grave danger – previously incapacitated acid spewer healed part of its wounds and fired a round of corrosive mucus in Ulryk's direction.

Being free, Noemi jumped to help straight away and blocked the projectile with her shield, at the same time directing the attack at the last centipede on her shield. The girl prepared a javelin and threw it between spewer's nozzles, finishing it off.

Estera rushed inside and tossed a stirred glowworm extract into the queen's maw. Beast's torso swelled, blood rained from its mouth. A minute later, poisonous gas stopped appearing. Everyone left the fight uninjured.

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Warriors gathered centipedes' chitin, while Estera carefully excised queen's and spewer's glands. Nathaniel compared ferns, herbs, and leaves around him to the pictures in his notebook. Noemi was lucky, required plants grew exactly where they fought the carrion queen.