We stood at the top of the stairs, looking down when we all felt a light earthquake. This set of stairs was different than all the others. It looked like a normal, mined-out, sloped tunnel, with many light runes running down it. I was, admittedly, in doubt whether or not it was really the stairs, though.

Symantha frowned. “Frankly, I’m opposed to going down there. If Reco is searching for us, we ought to look where we can for her before we try anything like that. We should keep searching for stairs to the higher levels.”

The only reason we hadn’t done that on previous levels was because the tunnels collapsed around us, and we were chased away by a giant monster.

{We should at least check to see what’s down there.} I wrote, then wiped and continued, {what if it was the last level, and the dungeon core was} wipe, write, {down there? We could just crush it and call it a day.}

Dota shook his head. “Dungeons have [boss] monsters. I don’t know how they work, but I do know they’re frequently fought on the final floor of a dungeon and are incredibly strong. Even if we weren’t all injured and exhausted, we would stand no chance against one.”

I had heard of [boss] monsters in legends before, but I didn’t know all too much about them. From what I understood, they were the pinnacle of monsters’ abilities and far tougher than any individual challenge in a dungeon. If there really was one down there...well, I kinda wanted to fight it.

Then again, I also didn’t want to die.

I slumped with a sigh, sad I wouldn’t get the chance to fight something like that and prove my worth.

“Yaaaaahhh!”

We each turned around as the creature that had scared us away on the past level roared far behind us, where we had come from.

Symantha squeaked as she heard it, her voice terrified. “Wha-I don’t understand, how come it could follow us so far? Monsters aren’t even meant to be able to leave their floor!”

“They can’t?” Dota asked. “I wasn’t aware.”

We tensed as the footsteps of someone running echoed through the hall, approaching us. Coming out of the thin fog, Ritta ran, carrying Julius on his back. “Oh please tell me that’s no illusion, we finally found you all!” he [noble] said.

“Thank goodness,” Julius said, resting on Ritta’s shoulder.

“Julius, Ritta!” Dota said excitedly, “What’s going on?”

“Well, we’re being chased by-” Ritta began as he came to a stop beside us.

We paused to look forward as more footsteps came down the hall. In no time, Reco had burst through the mist, running twice as fast as Ritta could with his load.

“Yay, everyone’s here!” she said, coming to a stop behind me. “Now, who wants to run for our lives from a boss monster?”

“Yaaaaah!”

We heard the resounding steps of the beast we’d seen on the second level. Without thinking at all, Reco began to run further down the cave, dashing down the stairs and ushering us with her.

Since she was our chaperone, we ran after her.

Though, I had to wonder what had happened to Asher.

Asher sat, glaring at a wall of collapsed stone as if hoping his aggression would make it move on its own. For the last three or so minutes, he had done this to no avail.

Take one step away from your master, and something like this happens.

The [drake] sighed then began walking back, further into the dungeon, figuring his master wouldn’t be coming to save him from the collapsed exit.

After all, as a level 20 [gold drake], he was more than prepared enough to take on the early dungeon’s levels on his lonesome.

It was later on, as he passed through a gravely room, chewing on a poor fell bat, then spitting it out like used gum, that he passed a familiar smell.

“Oh, its you.”

A cloaked figure was leaning against a wall under a puddle of blood.

Asher brought his head low to sniff it, then reeled its large head back in disgust as it smelled [dragon]...no, [human]...[drake] blood. Was this that youngling amalgamation? Could it shapeshift to being a humanoid?

Asher looked left and right, wondering if it would be best to end its suffering.

“H-hey, why are ya looking at me like that?”

The [drake] snorted.

“Anyhow, did you get separated from your friends?” Since Asher have no response, the cloaked amalgam continued. “Well, if anyone asks, its me who saved em’...I don’t know if they’ll get out of here, though. Not even I knew this would happen. Now, I guess ol’ prince is going to die again. I wonder what my next life is going to be li-” It coughed, blood spraying onto its hands, then wiped its shadow-enveloped snout with its sleeve. “...like...”

For a dying thing, it sure talked a lot. Asher put one eye next to its leg wound, which looked like something large had crushed it. It was probably suffering from some simple broken bones, maybe some squished organs.

After some thought, Asher admitted that it would be unsightly if he killed it or let it die behind the master’s back. He snorted again, annoyed it had come to his responsibility to save the creature. He craned his neck over, then began dexterously shifting through a satchel on his back.

From the corner of its eye, the young [drake] thing was weakly leaning forward, curious, likley attracted to the clinking of class as Asher tried to find the right item.

Gently, Asher brought out a vial of red liquid. If that little guy broke the thing, he’d kill the thing himself for wasting the master’s only health potion. He laid it on the little thing’s open palms, then glared at it.

“Ha...ha...it seems fate has yet to give up on me...thank you.” It nodded its head in respect.

The [drake] barked as if saying ‘you’re welcome’. ‘thank you’ was a word he understood, at least.

The youngling popped the cork, then chugged down half of the large potion before placing it down. He began to yell and whimper, spasming on the ground as he tried to stay quiet.

After about twenty seconds, the youngling stood from the ground, potion in hand and breathing heavily. He held it out, and Asher brought it back into the satchel, glad it hadn’t drunk the whole thing.

“Thank you again. Now...” It began walking forward through the darkness, evidently able to see through it just like Asher could with [darkvision].

The [drake] decided it ought to ensure the youngling survived and followed it.

“Let’s save your friends.”

The passage to the next level seemed like a normal part of the mine, but there were only one or two light runes, and after those, there weren’t any more. The tunnel eventually leveled out, and about a minute’s walk into it, we saw the passage led into someplace bright.

“H-how did you all even find us?” Thraisly asked.

“Well,” Ritta said, having already passed Julius to Reco, “I followed the scraps of cloth on the ground.”

“See? I told you it would work!” Symantha said to Keen as if her small victory over a child mattered in the scheme of things.

He scoffed at her.

“I swiftly cut up my cloth into little arrows, and scattered them on the ground so they could follow us,” Symantha said, pointing at a half-destroyed washcloth and scissors at her belt.

Darn, wish I’d thought of that!

Reco chuckled. “I just ran after their footsteps. I didn’t see a thing, heh.”

I guess her wisdom wasn’t much more than Maladrain’s.

“Yahh!”

“Man, it really wants us dead,” Reco said. “You all, if that thing keeps chasing us, we might have no choice. We’ll need to fight it.”

Everyone looked scared of that, and though I was excited to fight it, I wouldn’t willingly do so. If we were really forced to, someone could die.

We burst into the next, bright room, determined to escape. Then, we came to a stop as we entered, our suspicions dawning on us.

Inside was a massive, open, domed room, filled top to bottom with light runes shining a bright yellow. Standing on the other side of it, there was an old man in yellow and white robes, and behind him was a set of steel doors. He held a gnarly staff made of bronze, and looked...pale.

“Turn back or die.” He said gutturally.

“Straight to the point; I like it.” Reco said.

“Turn back or die.”

“Uhh, I heard you the first-”

“Turn back or die.”

Reco shook her head like she figured he’d say that.

“T-that’s him,” Keen said. “He was the [overseer] of the mine...”

Symantha nodded and rubbed his back, kneeling to eye level with the kid. “Sorry, Keen. We’re going to need to kill him.”

Way to put it not-so-lightly, girl!

“I-I’m sorry...” he said, tears beginning to form in his eyes, surprising me with his remorse. “I-I didn’t...dad said-”

“Turn back or die.”

Keen remained downcast. Then, he looked Symantha in the eye, his own eyes blank of expression. “D-destroy the dungeon,” he said in a droning tone. “A-as the Moorland family heir...I want you all to kill him and destroy the core.”

“Yaaah!”

Not far away, the sound of the [boss] roaring came. After the group exchanged silent nods of agreement, we all started walking forward, besides Keen. He was basically our employer, after all, and there was a lot in it for us if we won the fight.

As we took our first step, the [boss] appeared in a flash of red particles, still roaring.

“Kill them,” I vaguely heard over its yells.