We rode up to the entrance to the kobold dungeon and slid off our mounts. The entrance was surprisingly well lit and relatively easy to see inside. It had clearance several meters in each direction. Torchlight bounced off the uneven flagstone walls. The floor was polished smooth and glistened with blood trailing deeper into the cavern. It smelled like feces and wet fur inside. I looked over at my party and Alyssa’s nose was scrunched up. Johnny stepped up to the entrance and examined the blood more closely.

“This is fresh.” He stated stoically. “The park is only a few miles to the west, I wonder…”

“.... if it belongs to other humans?” I finished for him. He nodded.

“Nothing for it but to get to it. Veep, can you tell us how big this is?”

“I cannot, though the dungeon is only 2 days old, it probably is not big, maybe as deep as a half mile with four to five rooms. At least two small chests and a boss chest.”

“Cool, extra loot.” I gave each of us the once over, we all wore torn, sliced, pierced, and otherwise rough clothing covered in blood, both our own and our enemies. Alyssa looked at me curiously and I explained what Veep had told me.

We stepped into the dungeon and the air grew stale in my nose. My perception and KEEN OBSERVATION were working in overdrive. I scanned the rough walls and smooth floor carefully as we progressed into the tunnel. It gently angled down and left for about 50 meters. Primitive torches were placed every 10 meters and reflected light well enough to see without straining. I expected to find a primitive spiked trap or an enemy patrol as we descended the tunnel. Instead we came to a largely empty room carved into the left of the hall.

The room was more dimly lit than the tunnel and had about 15 sleeping palettes made of animal furs on the ground. The only other things we could see in the room were extra spears and a pair of leather bucklers leaning against the far wall. Nothing of interest here except for maybe a good idea of how many opponents we face.

“At least 15 kobolds in here somewhere.” I said in a low voice.

Alyssa flickered disorientingly, shifting in and out of the shadows with the same rhythm of the flickering wall torches. “Ok, but where are they?” She whispered.

“Where indeed? Let’s hope they aren’t all riding the chieftains little kobold rat cock.”

“Ewwwww.”

With nothing of interest in the first room we pressed on down the tunnel, ever wary of traps. The tunnel leveled out and then curved right for about 10 meters and then opened up into a massive cavern. I heard the rhythmic strike of metal on metal deeper into the cavern and suspected I already knew what we would find in here. I paused at the entrance of the cavern and could see the exit about 100 meters on the other side. Between the entrance and exit were dozens of large dark ore outcroppings. Inside several unarmored kobolds swung heavy looking pickaxes into the exposed ore. They would pick up the pieces that broke free and place them in large canvas sacks that hung low by their hips. Before I could come up with a plan Alyssa took the initiative.

“Let me take them. It’s so dark in there they will never see me.”

I gave her a long look and nodded. Immediately she dissolved into the shadows. I expected to see little kobold heads toppling. I was wrong. And my previous assessment that I shouldn’t piss her off was affirmed repeatedly. Johnny and I watched raptly as she picked her way through the cavern. Lulu stepped up seeming able to see her where we could not and appeared to beam in pride. If we hadn’t been concentrating we would have missed her first kill.

The unfortunate kobold was caught while he was in the middle of his back swing. A shadow wreathed hand wrapped around its muzzle and a dark falchion pierced from his back through his chest. We saw his shocked eyes drift down to the blade that was suddenly protruding from his chest. Dark crimson blood slowly trickled from the wound and his arms sagged and his pickaxe tumbled from his hands. Then the blade was wrenched from his back and the open wound now sprayed briefly as he was lowered quietly to the ground and life faded from his beady black eyes.

This process was repeated rapidly as Alyssa invisibly worked her way through the room. She had silently murdered five of the seven kobolds working in the room when the sudden lack of sound caused the last two to look around for their fallen compatriots. As one of the kobolds narrowed its eyes on one of the bodies both of Alyssa’s falchions tumbled through the air and impaled the remaining kobolds cleanly through their chests. They promptly fell backwards and slid across the floor a good 10 feet. Then the swords were pulled free from the kobolds and disappeared into the shadows.

FUCK ME!

And then Alyssa was once again standing in front of us, a giant smile on her blood splattered face. Lulu immediately licked her face clean, this made her look less ghastly, but all I could think about was how overpowered she was.

“That was fucking insane.” I exclaimed, then I added “I’m actually a little bit terrified of you.”

She blushed, took in a deep breath and then finally spoke. “Can we rest a moment, spending that much time in the shadows takes a lot out of me.”

“Sure, whatever you want, we’re just going to check out this room, maybe steal a bag of that ore for later.” Johnny and I did just that.

I picked up the bag the first of Alyssa’s kobold victims was carrying and retrieved a fist sized chunk of the dark metal. On closer inspection the system informed that it was called DARK IRON ORE but provided no other information. I dropped the rock back in the blood splattered canvas bag and then stuffed that in my spatial inventory. It took a whole 10kg of my 50kg limit. Hope it’s worth something.

Alyssa having regained most of her stamina rejoined us in the middle of the cavern. The coyotes padded single file behind her and proceeded to sniff and paw at the dead kobolds. Johnny had begun the process of looting the corpses when two kobold guards walked casually in the room and froze at the sight of the last two kobolds Alyssa had killed. Then their eyes snapped to our party and began to bark a warning down the hall they had come from.

I raised my rifle to my shoulder and snapped off three shots into the chest of the farthest one out while Johnny launched his pilfered spear at the other one. The shots echoed off the walls and traveled down the hall as Johnny’s spear caught it’s target in the shoulder. My kobold dropped dead as chucks of its back splattered the ground. The speared kobold squealed and spun around the corner screaming bloody murder. As if the sound of an AK firing in this cavern wasn’t loud enough to wake the fucking dead. Then a rhythmic beating sound began echoing back towards us. Drums? A FUCKING ALARM!

“Well, now they know we’re here.” I deadpanned.

“Yes, they do.” Johnny replied grimly.

“We can fight them here or push them in the tunnel.”

“If we fight here, Brother coyote and his family can help, if we push into the tunnel they won’t have room to fight unless they want to block your shots.”

“However, I’m confident we can take them in the tunnel and keep the coyotes fresh for the final boss fight.”

Johnny considered for a moment “This is also an option, we should decide.”

He was right, already I could hear clattering of spears and shields from half a dozen of the kobolds heading our direction.

“Fuck it, Alyssa had her fight, now it’s my turn, we push into the tunnel.” I stated with an almost arrogant confidence and launched into a jog for the exit of the ore cavern. “You two stay back and protect my rear unless I tell you to push up.”

I reached the exit and it turned sharply to the left. I peaked around the corner and saw the wounded kobold trying to pull the spear out of it’s shoulder. I saw me and it’s eyes went wide with fear because I had already drawn my pistol on it. I put two rounds in its forehead and sneered as it ceased struggling and plastered the ground with fleshy grey chunks. I looked ahead and saw the tunnel make another sharp turn about 40 meters away and decided this is where I would ambush the ugly rat faced shits.

I crouched behind the wall and motioned for my party to halt their advance and listened down the hall using my enhanced perception. I was able to determine the moment the first of the six kobold warriors rounded the corner. I waited til they last reached the tunnel and they slowed at the sight of the last kobold I made dead. I could hear the kobold in the lead giving orders that I could only assume translated to “you, check that out”.

Then I was in motion spinning around the corner with my rifle raised to my shoulder, my sights landing on the position of the last kobold I heard speaking. I activated STEADY SHOTS and CONTROLLED BURSTS at same time and began working 5 round bursts from one kobold to the next. They didn’t have any more chance against my rifle than did the kobolds in the previous room when Alyssa assassinated them. A quintet of rounds would bark out from my rifle and a kobold would jerk about in a blood splattered dance of pain and violence. I would move to the next target before the previous one finished falling over.

When it was over my rifle clicked empty, I mechanically removed the spent magazine and rolled a fresh one into the magazine well, racked the next round into the chamber and scanned the bloody bodies of the kobolds I had eliminated. Smoke rose from the end of the barrel and traced a lazy path through the air. It took all of 6 seconds to kill these creatures. I may have been a little proud of my ability to kill these little rat fucks. I felt a hand gently pat my ass and the look of prideful gloating was quickly replaced with one that could best be described as stunned and befuddled.

“I guess I’m the one that gets to be impressed.” She smiled and strode past me with her ass shifting visibly with each step. “Good game.”

My jaw dropped. Bitch just ‘GOOD GAMED’ me. What the actual fuck is going on in that girls head.

Johnny walked by with a quiet chuckle forming in his throat and when I looked at him for help he just winked and kept walking. “We should see what else is in here. I don’t hear anymore coming at the moment.

I snapped out of my reverie and listened closely, I heard movement but it was moving away. “I hear them further in, but they seem to be beating a hasty retreat.” He nodded and we caught up to Alyssa who was creeping up to an intersection with her Falchions drawn.

I knew she could fade into the shadows at a moments notice so assumed she was trying to conserve her stamina. She stood on the left side of the intersection and peered into the right side hall, looked back at us and shook her head. I slid up on her right and was able to get a clear view down the left hall. My hall turned left about 20 meters in and I looked around the corner I had my back to and saw that this one did the same. The tunnel we were in ended about 100 meters ahead with a crude wooden door set in the stone. Red light speared through the gaps in the flimsy and nonuniform material the door was constructed of. Definitely not weather sealed. Kaia pushed past me and Johnny and stared quietly down the right hall. Then he looked at me and back down the hall again and sniffed a few times. We’re near the end aren’t we?

I gave Kaia another long look and then turned to Alyssa and Johnny “Ok, I think these are the last rooms to investigate. The one with the useless door is clearly the boss, but Kaia seems to be interested in the one to our right here. So this is what I propose, Alyssa, in less than a day you have become scary strong, I know you can take care of yourself so I want you and Lulu to take the room to the left.”

She smiled at the compliment and nodded with a bright red blush forming on her cheeks. “Ok, we can do that.” At times she’s a shy teenager, and then the next moment she’s terrifyingly capable. Need to work on that. Sending her off on her own a little should help with that.

“Johnny, lets you and me check this side out with ‘Brother Coyote’ and Kaia. I have a feeling we aren’t going to like what we find in here. We’ll meet back here in 5 minutes. Sound good?” I asked her and she again nodded shyly and broke off down the hall with Lulu.

Johnny and I with our respective coyote mounts headed down the right hall making as little noise as possible. We turned the corner and were faced with another flimsy door. It had no latch, only a crude wooden handle. Johnny stood to my side as I pushed the door open and paused at the nightmare scene in front of me. Johnny visibly paled and stumbled slightly as Brother Coyote and Kaia pressed their heads forward with their teeth bared and growling.

“Guess we know where all that blood came from at the entrance.”

Even Veep who normally stayed out of sight was now vibrating all around the edges of my vision.

“This isn’t right. It’s way too early for a horror type dungeon.”

I didn’t bother asking. The explanation wouldn’t change what I was looking at. The room we had now entered was dominated by a wooden dinner table that stretched a good 20 meters. Around the table were two dozen chairs pushed into the table, plates, bowls, cups and eating utensils set neatly in front of them as if waiting for the dinner bell to ring. The table had been set and the meal was finished, sitting squarely in the center of the table steam wafting up from the various mundane looking dishes indicating they had been recently cooked. Everything looked normal except for the main dish, which consisted of a large slab of what smelled like honey glazed pork. In this case, it was the ‘long’ pork. A young woman, armless and legless, grill marks lined her back and her head was still attached and charred. Her body rested in a pile of green vegetables and her mouth had been pried open, an apple stuffed in it, while radishes replaced her eyes.

When I was able to pull my eyes from the grizzly sight of the cooked woman, I glanced around the edges of the room and saw human bodies of both men and women in cages, some on wicked looking iron hooks. A cage on my right held a young girl of about 12, her left leg had been removed below the knee and somehow she was still alive, she whimpered and stared at us with bloodshot eyes. Another cage held a man with no arms who was also somehow still alive. In almost all of the cages were men, women and children in various stages of dismemberment.

At the end of the room on the other end of the table, up a few short steps sat a glowing yellow oven and grill, heat seared various bits of man flesh and shimmered in the air. A solitary kobold stood over a large workspace chopping vegetables. She was taller than the regular kobolds we had encountered thus far and looked rather obese. Unlike the other kobolds she had dark hair that was pulled into a bun. She wore a blood stained apron and was humming to herself as she worked at her task. Various iron pots and pans hung above her and at least a couple dozen various knives were embedded in the butcher block to her right.

Suddenly she stopped humming and cocked her head to the side and sniffed “Meeaaaat.. I *sniff* .. I smell… fresssssssh mmmmeat.”