After making arrangements to meet up the next morning with Anira and Niviem, I leave the guildhall to backtrack to some shops I had seen on my way over. The first stop is a blacksmithing outfit. Entering the shop reveals an interior stretching far into the back with a large array of weapons and armor lining the walls and in large piles on the edges of the floor. Careful not to accidentally touch any of the equipment, I make my way to a counter in the center of the room where a dwarven woman is waiting with a relaxed smile.

"Afternoon!" the shopkeeper chirps "what can we do for you today?"

"Hello, I'm looking for a complete set of armor, a single-handed sword and small to medium shield. I'm not sure if I can afford all that so if you have some second hand equipment, that may be a good place to start for me."

She clasps her hands together and nods "Ok! Let's get started."

The next half hour is spent with the shopkeeper showing me ranges of equipment with their respective prices followed by a fair bit of wandering back and forth as I try to evaluate my limited funds and how everything will work together. From the way she is citing the prices, the currency breakdown is 20 coppers to one silver and 20 silvers to a gold. Some second-hand equipment is in poor shape with patched punctures making me wonder exactly where the armor was retrieved from, but I try not to think of that too much.

For the armor, I'm able to collect a set of second-hand chain mail armor with gambeson, open-faced helmet, belt with pouches, dagger scabbard, and reinforced gauntlets & boots. The sword is a little shorter than a typical long sword, but with a wider blade and more weight. The shield is a smaller circular type mostly made of wood with a thin sheet of metal covering the front. Everything put together cost me 2 gold, 13 silver but is in good working order, and I'm glad to finally be equipped with something I'm more familiar with.

Making a couple of additional stops to pick up a small tent, medical supplies, and some writing materials, I return to a tavern located near the front gate. The woman in the first-floor bar informs me each night costs 10 coppers, then hands a key over for an upstairs room after I pay. The room itself isn't much bigger than what is required for a bed, wardrobe and small table, but I'm pleasantly surprised to find a functional bathroom as well.

I start setting some of my equipment down in preparation to return to the dining room but instead decide to put everything into dimensional storage, adding 'safe keeping' to the list of benefits for the skill. Downstairs, the dinner I opt for is a hunk of some kind of grilled meat, vegetable soup, and ale. I am already happy the food is of the non-dried variety and hot, but everything is good, and I'm done eating in short order.

'Tasty food, a safe place to sleep; with a little luck things will stay this way.' I think.

...

The next morning after meeting up with Anira and Niviem inside the gate, we pass through showing our guild tags to the guards. Our plan for the day is to make for the forest I had come from and hunt various monsters flagged by the guild. It seems this is the direction of the next largest city and due to military patrols and guild bounties, the area has a reduced monster population.

Once outside and after we have a little distance from the Ilona, we step to the side of the road and I quickly show them the skills I can invoke for reference. They take in the display of the arcane bolt and haste without many reactions but seem to be surprised by the element creation and dimensional storage skills; this is the first time either have seen anything of the sort.

Anira has a far-sight skill which allows her to view details at long distances. She also has passive skills for projectile accuracy, quiet movement, and tracking which will be helpful for hunting down monsters today.

Niviem has a limited single-person healing spell which requires a brief chant to activate as well as contact with the patient. Another variant is a channeled version that works from about ten paces away but is problematic as it requires high levels of focus to maintain. His other two spells reduce the potency of poisoning and minor afflictions.

After the last skill demonstration, we set out and return in the general direction I had come from the previous day. After some time we're walking along the road now surrounded by dense forest.

...

"...they're intelligent? Can you go into more detail about what that means?" I ask.

Niviem recaps "You said that the dungeons where you're from are basically empty mazes located in areas of high mana concentration. Between the monsters that are randomly spawned and the earlier spawns already wandering in the maze, many end up killing each other, so the whole thing is almost like a giant monster trap. I mean a few strays get out, but it's still a lot better than having them spawn in the middle of the countryside, right?"

I confirm "that's an accurate summary."

"Ok here are some of the differences I've been told about- monsters work together or at least don't kill each other, spawns aren't always random with deeper floors being more dangerous, the dungeons have valuable stuff and there is a design behind everything from traps to mechanisms that change the maze when a party is around. Pretty sure they're more like people traps than monster traps." Niviem says.

Raising my brows, I say "Well I just have more questions now, ha~"

"Above!" Anira shouts while looking upwards at a distant tree and simultaneously nocking her bow.

It only requires a moment to close the gap to Niviem and press his shoulder down as I cover us. At almost the same instant I feel a sharp impact as an arrow glances off my shield.

Peering out, I see the archer in a tree nocking his bow again. Two additional attackers have emerged from their hiding spots in the forest ahead and are also rushing us; one brandishing a spear sprinting at Anira and another rogue with two daggers running my way.

Pushing Niviem toward the trees on the other side of the road, I say "hide- trees."

I follow but allow the distance to increase once Niviem is underneath the cover and draw my sword in preparation to engage the rogue. To my right, I can hear the thrum of a bow and the spear wielder groan as an arrow lodge in his thigh, after which I can see Anira falling back toward the treeline.

Focusing on the rogue who has almost caught up, I drop into a fighting stance and wait. In a sprint and with a terribly telegraphed motion, the rogue lunges forward with his right dagger. Stepping left and pivoting, I lightly deflect the dagger followed immediately by a harsh strike with my shield. I don't expect that action to seriously injure him, but it reduces his field of vision and closes off effective use of both his arms for a split second which is enough time to shove my sword below my shield and through his midsection.

Twisting then wrenching my sword free and letting the rogue topple, I can see the archer falling from the tree with an arrow embedded in his throat.

Anira breaks from the foliage and back onto the road a second later now that the archer isn't a threat anymore. The spear wielder has been trying to close the gap to her with little success and is now hanging back behind a tree justifiably worried about Anira having a clear shot at him.

Approaching the bandit from his back, he whirls and faces me with his spear low. His leg has blood dripping from the wound in his thigh and his indecision is apparent but it is too late for him to run. I had seen Anira silently change position behind him to get a better angle for a shot as soon as he turned to face me, and it only takes a moment longer before an arrowhead is protruding from the bandit's throat.

After watching him drop his spear and slump to the ground I look back at the rogue and observe he is holding his wound and weakly moaning, but not moving. I'm kneeling down to put the spear into dimensional storage when Niviem catches up.

Checking the body for valuables, I ask him "Has anyone found what is controlling them?"

Niviem seems lost and responds with "Huh?"

"You know- maybe some kind of special monster at the bottom of the dungeon? Also don't you think it's a little strange these dungeons seem made to lure only people? That's a lot of trouble to go through making special items just to attract adventurers." I continue.

Niviem looks at Anira for a second then responds "Uhmm...I don't think anyone knows or has been to the bottom of a dungeon. The monsters and traps usually get so nasty people eventually give up. And I hadn't thought too much about it really as I haven't been in one yet."

Moving to the archer, I continue my search and go on "If the risk becomes high enough that makes sense I suppose, but perhaps we could still go one day. Everything you've described sounds very interesting."

Finally searching the rogue, I remark "It looks like there is a total of 1 gold, 12 silver between the three of them by the way." and hand the money to Niviem.

Turning to continue on our way, a message appears:

[ You have killed a level 8 Rogue. Experience points awarded. ]

'Interesting- people give experience points as well.'

...

Arriving at our destination sometime later, Anira quickly finds traces of a monster, and we follow her in silence until she pauses and points to a Thorn Lizard in a clearing perhaps 80 paces away.

"These are very aggressive and unintelligent Rem; you can attack from range if you would like, and it is unlikely to run even after sustaining injury." she whispers.

I nod and open with an arcane bolt that impacts the creature's side knocking it over. After pulling itself slowly back onto its feet, I launch another then pause before breaking out of the treeline in time with the bolt's arrival. When the bolt makes contact, another small explosion flashes near the creature again. By the time I arrive the monster is mostly convulsing on the ground and I drive my sword into its neck to kill it.

[ You have killed a level 1 Thorn Lizard. Experience points awarded. ]

We don't have a line of sight on the second one we encounter, so this one has an opportunity to charge at me, although it isn't very fast. Perhaps these monsters are slower because they rely on their thorns and thick hide for defense. Niviem had been trailing a medium distance behind me and Anira immediately gets out of the way to join him. The plan is that I will tackle the monsters by myself with the two of them intervening only if necessary.

I wait for the lizard, then side-step deflecting its mouth with my shield and slashing downward with my sword as it passes, immediately after which I follow up with an arcane bolt since its momentum keeps it traveling forward. The bolt tips the lizard over and by the time it is halfway back on its feet, I catch up and dispatch it.

[ You have killed a level 2 Thorn Lizard. Experience points awarded. ]

After seeing the message I look up to see Anira and Niviem starting to relax their posture. These monsters are proving straightforward to fight, but I am still glad I'm not here alone doing this. One mistake against a monster opening a wound, a twisted ankle- really a lot of things could upend the situation quickly if I were by myself this far out.

We continue on to kill a few more monsters of the same type with me holding each corpse in dimensional storage for the guild before we take a break for lunch. Finding a spot with good visibility and the protection of a cliffside at our back, we sit down and pull out some food.

"For longer trips I can hold items for you with my storage skill if you'd like. I suggest keeping a minimum of food, water and other necessities on you however in case something manages to kill me. I'm fairly certain my stored items don't just pop out if I die." I offer.

"Thank you Rem. I will organize my equipment accordingly the next time we're on a longer outing. Your close combat skills are adequate by the way." Anira responds with a nod.

"Just so you know Rem, that is a compliment coming from Anira." Niviem adds.

"I see, thanks. Your marksmanship is ridiculously adequate." I chuckle.

Anira looks down and smiles; it's nice to see she's capable of some levity.

"Well, just keep blocking those pesky arrows for me, and I'll put up with you." Niviem grins.

"Very funny, and you're welcome." I drawl, then with a moment of reflection, I say "You know, that archer had you targeted first. If Anira hadn't spotted him early on, things may have turned out very differently."

"Yeah I know." Niviem soberly replies.

"Would your spell casting be impaired if you wore armor? A helmet and chain shirt may not weigh too much." I ask.

Niviem starts eating and says in a lowered voice "I'll think about it."

It looks like he doesn't want to discuss this further so I drop the matter. After eating lunch and breaking camp, we continue tracking monsters and end up with several more Thorn Lizards for a total of eight. This puts my experience near the end of level three. At this rate of progress, I'm hopeful I can start helping out the group with better quests soon.

Later in the afternoon, the three of us are walking single file through the foliage with Anira in the lead by about ten paces. She suddenly motions for us to hold position, then signals again to drop onto the ground. Looking up from my prone position, I can see her indicate she is going ahead to scout, then silently disappears into the brush. Glancing back at Niviem to verify he is alright, I listen in silence for a minute until I can barely hear someone distant calling for help.

It isn't Anira's voice, so I remain in place; she had probably heard it first and gone ahead to look. It isn't likely that a group of bandits would set a random trap in the middle of the woods, but perhaps if they had seen us coming? I slowly raise up into a crouch and return to Niviem asking him to hide a little further back in case anyone hostile approaches.

After another few minutes, an explosion can be heard not very far away. Soon Anira returns motioning for us to silently retreat. I was expecting to stop after we were probably out of visual range, but Anira only increases her speed now making no attempt to move quietly, and continues in a direction back towards Ilona. From the look on her face, there is something serious going on, so I hold my questions and try to keep up.

At a certain point, both Niviem and I are winded and Anira leads us into some cover to rest.

"Were you able... to find the person... calling for help?" I pant.

"There was nobody there... not human anyway." she pauses, then continues "Do either of you know what a Flayer Mimic is? It was hiding in some trees looking for prey."

Niviem and I shake our heads waiting for her to continue.

"I don't either. I couldn't read its level, but it was very strong. The Thorn Lizard we were tracking wandered into the area first. The Flayer Mimic had been hiding behind a cluster of trees until it saw the lizard. Bending the trees apart easily, it launched a large fireball from its mouth and killed the lizard- that was the explosion you heard. In the next instant, it covered twenty paces and started eating; I don't think I've ever seen something that large move so fast."

"Could you describe it?" asks Niviem.

"I was able to get a detailed look while it was standing still and behind the trees. Roughly humanoid but with thicker appendages ending in large claws, perhaps twice your height and horns angled backwards on its head. No eyes I could find, and the skin appeared to be red although most of it was covered in strips of blackened flesh. The calls for help were coming from the Flayer; it was probably doing this using the parts of someone's torso and throat stitched into the front of itself." Anira says.

With that description, Niviem half-jokingly asks "Got it- can we run some more now please?"