“Now we can see what everyone can do!”

We spent the entire evening yesterday getting to know the new members of our group, but as they had just been summoned it wasn’t like there was much for them to tell. We did get to learn about their personalities though, and I think we will be able to get along at least.

I do feel a bit bad for Lynx though, he wanted more than anything to have more of his kind, so he would have someone to speak with. It isn’t like Lynx, Orino, and Reti don’t get along, but even though Orino and Reti have only just been summoned they already seem to have a strong chemistry between them. I am afraid in Lynx’s pursuit for a friend of his own race, he will end up becoming the third wheel…

Not that it is much of a consolation, but our new avian companion, Isi, seems to be getting along exceptionally well with Lynx. They spent quite a few hours talking last night, but you could tell Lynx would have rather been talking with Orino and Reti.

I meanwhile spent the evening making friends with our new lamia member, Nyxia. I was surprised however, because I kept forgetting she wasn’t human. Not that it matters to me, but I had to catch myself quite often, because she kept speaking about wanting to see Tobes and meet lots of new people, and I had to stop myself before I told her I would take her to do those things.

The townspeople of Tobes are pretty open-minded, but I still think a Lamia would be a bit much for many of them. If things keep going well with the demi-human village it may become possible, so I hope I do get the chance to show Nyxia around Tobes one day.

As for their gear Cat-folk and Avians are a rare breed, they level like a human, but they wear monster gear. Of course that wasn’t a problem for Master, so Orino is wearing a rather snazzy set of leather and chainmail armor. The quality and materials are far better than a standard level 1 adventurer, but compared to Lynx and my own gear, it is quite lacking.

Master did promise to provide the groups with better equipment after they finished training, so this will be plenty to get him through until then. Likewise Reti was given a set of leather reinforced robes and a simple but pretty staff. Lynx uses one of those bladed combat staves, so he fights alongside of us most of the time while casting spells, but Reti looks to be more of a traditional type of mage.

Isi on the other hand was quite hard to prepare equipment for, flight isn’t a very beneficial ability when you spend most of your time in dungeons, but we still didn’t want to equip him in armor that would prevent him from being able to take flight either, you add his wings and the fact that avians are about twenty five percent larger than a human, and that leaves him quite an easy target.

We decided to give him a variation of the archer’s armor, with quiver full of javelins. From what Master said, the swan beastkin that he gave Elder Dyson, seems to be fighting with a similar style, so it should work for Isi as well.

As for Nyxia, Master equipped her in chainmail armor, and it ends after only covering the first few feet of her tail, the rest of the tail is then completely bare and exposed. Nyxia doesn’t have a class due to her race, but she has a large curved sword with a single edge, and large shield to serve as a defensive member of our group, but I am rather worried about her tail making her an easy target.

There isn’t much we can do about it though, so I just look on as we send our new members in on their first battle. Gabriela seems to be taking her job very seriously as she watches the battle and what I assume is a screen in front of her very carefully with a furrowed brow.

The first room we entered contained nothing but a handful of goblins, and although they don’t look as mangy as normal goblins. Cat-folk and avians are a bit stronger at level one then a normal monster, but even at level one Lamia are way up there on the list, so it is of no surprise to Lynx and I when they have no difficulty in dealing with the goblins.

“Gabriela, I appreciate your dedication to your work, but if you take things this seriously during a fight with simple goblins, I worry about your health once the battles really begin to heat up…”

Gabriela: “No, I am watching to make sure they are safe, but I am also very interested to see how adventurers carry out the battles as well. My mistress wishes me to watch over her dungeon in the same manner as the bunny sisters do for your Master, so I wish to pay close attention to how adventurers react to a situation, so I can better command the monsters, once my Mistress gives me the permission to do so.”

“Our group is far from the normal adventurer group, but I guess that is ok. We have much training to do however, so please pace yourself. I wouldn’t want you to become tired and make a mistake at a crucial moment.”

Gabriela: “I understand, and I promise to remain vigilant!”

The room itself is pretty standard. Nyxia could probably stretch from corner to corner. I don’t know if the door we chose makes much of a difference, but there is another one on the far side of the room, so we decide to keep going.

The progression in this dungeon is pretty steep, the first room was simple goblins, and the second room was advanced goblins, and by the third room they were already having to deal with hobgoblins. At that point the group started to have a bit of trouble, but with Nyxia they still managed to clear the room without our help.

Gabriela seems to be in the zone every time we enter a new room, and she doesn’t relax until all the monsters are dealt with, and she has even begun to take notes.

“That last battle was a bit rough, why don’t we take a quick breather real quick, before we continue on to the next room.”

Reti: “Kyaa~!” –She exclaims as she stretches.- “Miss Ceres doesn’t mess around.”

Orino: “I wasn’t expecting the progression of the monsters to be so sudden.”

Lynx: “You have all performed very well for your first time.”

Isi: “Of course, we got to do our best, so we can help Master for real!”

Nyxia: “It is best to take it nice and slow.”

Isi: “But not too slow, or the other groups will leave us in the dust!”

“Don’t worry, with Nyxia in our group you have started out at a higher advantage. Depending on how the others train, the only other group that comes close is Miss Bandy’s group.”

Lynx: “I think she is the type to try to raise their levels fast by blowing through the monsters herself, but I believe that even if they out-level you all, as long as you get the actual combat experience, you are still better off.”

Isi: “It would be nice to be recognized by Master though…”

“Our group is pretty special, so I don’t think you have to worry about getting Master’s attention, I am sure he is going to be quite interesting how your training goes.”

Reti: “Well we better get back to it then, we wouldn’t want him to find out we were just sitting around chatting!”

Lynx: “Breaks are important too, you have not been conserving your magic as much as you could be, so you need to make sure you take all the time you can to recharge.”

Reti: “I’m sorry, I will be more careful.”

Poppy: “Don’t worry about making mistakes now, right now is the time to make them when the cost is low. As long as you learn from them, that is the important part.”

Gabriela has been writing on her parchment like crazy ever since we stopped for our break so Nyxia says “What kind of notes you writing down Gabriela?” as she slithers closer to take a peek.

Gabriela: “I’m just trying to write everything down, while it is still fresh in my mind.”

“Wow, these are amazing!” –Nyxia says as she looks over Gabriela’s shoulder.- “Can I have a look?”

Gabriela: “Please, just be careful with them, they are important.” –She says handing a few of the pages of parchment to Nyxia and she then continues to write away on another.-

“Look at this everyone!” –Nyxia says as she starts showing the rest of us what is on the pages.-

We have only been through a few rooms but there are already pages of information that Gabriela has observed, complete with little sketches of the group members and how they reacted in the situation. To be able to do this on the move while standing, and in such a short amount of time, Gabriela seems quite talented.

Nyxia: “Look this one even has the face I made when Orino kicked my tail!”

Orino: “Sorry about that…”

“Gabriela, if you don’t mind, maybe we can take a look at these at the end of each day? It might really help their training if they can see their mistakes like this.”

Gabriela: “As long as you return them, since I need them for my own training…” –She says without looking up from her parchment.-

Nyxia then gathers the parchment pages back up and gives them back to Gabriela, and we then gather up heading on to the next room. The progression of the rooms means it won’t be long until things become serious for our new members, and sure enough it proves true when the next room consists of some advanced hobgoblins, and Lynx and I have to step in to block a few blows.

We still let them kill the hobgoblins themselves, but as soon as the battle is over Orino drops down to the floor to rest and quickly apologized to Nyxia. “I’m sorry, I kicked your tail again…”

Lynx and I made sure none of their wounds were more than just superficial, but to be on the safe side we cast a few healing spells to make sure everyone is in top shape.

Nyxia: “No, you were just trying to dodge that attack, if my tail wasn’t in the way you wouldn’t have gotten hit at all! If anything, I should be apologizing to you for you getting hit like that.”

Lynx: “Nyxia’s tail, is quite the unique obstacle, but once you all get used to fighting together, you will stop making mistakes like that, and maybe even turn it into an advantage instead.”

Nyxia: “I don’t see how, right now all it does is get in the way!”

“This is only the first day, just give it some time.”

After only peeking in the next room and seeing a group of orcs we decide it is best to return to the central room. Lynx and I could handle the orcs, but there is no way the new members can, and we have plenty of other doors to choose from, and we are in no rush.

The first door we entered that was housing the goblins, was an old worn wooden door, the next one we chose is a rusty metal door, and behind it we find a small group of kobolds. These kobolds are much more sleek then the typical kobold, but just like the goblins their fighting potential is about the same.

Their progression also continues much like the goblins, each room proving to be far more difficult from the last. We make it through the same number of rooms as we did with the goblins, and everyone is starting to work together a bit better now.

Reti: “Thanks Isi, you really saved me from that kobold, but I don’t know what was scarier, the kobold rushing at me, or the whoosh of that javelin as it flew past me to bring him down…”

Isi: “I didn’t mean to get it that close to you, I’m sorry.”

Orino: “You did good Isi, and so did you Nyxia, I was proud that I haven’t kicked your tail in the last few rooms, and when I started to back up and I hit your tail I just knew I screwed up again, but if you didn’t stop me I would have backed right into that other kobold…”

“You guys are getting there, but we still have a long way to go.”

Nyxia: “That one was a pretty close call though, so we should probably head back and choose a different door now.”

Lynx: “That is a good call.”

We then turn back heading to the central room again, and the next door we chose leads to some lizardmen. The lizardmen are a bit tougher than the goblins or kobolds, so they struggle a bit more dealing with them, but even so they are really starting to come together as a team.

After they can’t go any further on the lizardmen we return and find some dog-like humanoids in the next door. After we clear the first room, I investigate the corpses, because I am not quite sure what they are.

Orino: “I guess if we don’t know what these things are right after being summoned, that means you don’t know what they are either?”

Lynx: “I have never seen anything quite like it. It is like a dog and a goblin. Gabriela, care to enlighten us?”

Gabriela: “They are not an entirely new species, but I can’t say they are very common, I am sure you will know what they are once you see some of the evolved forms, but think of it as your own training.”

Nyxia: “Well they aren’t any stronger than the other monsters, so we should be good for at least a few rooms, so why don’t we go find out?”

After a few more rooms, they become too difficult for the new members to deal with, but we are also pretty confident that these monsters are some lesser form of gnoll. Although I didn’t know there was such a thing.

If each one of these doors hold a singular creature, and as you pass from room to room you encounter the higher evolutionary forms. It seems like Ceres’s dungeon is like a menagerie of monsters and their evolutions. If that really is what Ceres is trying to do here, I have to say it is quite an ambitious feat…

We continue late into the evening, but even though we only make it a few rooms deep past each door we still don’t make it through even half the doors on this floor. We probably could have leveled up the new members faster if Lynx and I participated more, but I think their experience in handling a fight, is just as important as their actual level.

On our way back down to camp we check everyone’s statuses, and it appears that even though Orino, Reti, and Isi have reached level 7, poor Nyxia has only gained a single level. She started out much stronger than them so maybe it will balance out eventually.

Once we make it down to camp we see several of the other groups have already returned, and among the groups is Miss Ceres, Master, his wife, and even his daughter as well. Miss Ceres is holding Master’s daughter while laughing with Belinda, because Rory is trying to stick her fingers in the nostrils of the female lizardman that is in Avila, Dreues, and Armand’s group, while she makes funny faces at Rory.

Master meanwhile seems happy as he prepares a lot of food in a pot hanging over an open fire. The groups’ fatigue seems to instantly melt away as we quickly join in with the others.

○○○○○○

Our group arrives on the fourth floor from the bottom, we are not sure what to expect exactly, but the numerous amount of doors is enough to make us a bit anxious. Dreues, Armand, and I were quite hesitant to lead a group of adventurers after losing the rest of our teams in the fight against the lizardmen, but Master persuaded us to do it anyway.

After Poppy’s group decided to add some actual monsters on their group, we came up with an idea. We thought if we added lizardmen to our group, then if something did happen to them we wouldn’t feel so bad.

However things didn’t work quite as planned, because after Master summoned a large green lizardman as a defensive fighter, and a smaller blue lizardman female, or would it be lizardwoman… In any case she was a mage, so our group had a pretty niche role to fill with our last member.

I am a sword-maiden, which allows me to cast a few spells, but that leaves me as only being good at casting magic and good at fighting but not excellent at either. Dreuses is a stout boar beastkin, and he has a big shield and thick armor, so he is clearly built for defense. Armand however is a slender and a bit twitchy chipmunk beastkin mage, which focuses on restorative arts.

That means we needed a sustainable damage dealer, so just to be sure Master summons a young human woman with the martial artist class. That made Dreues, Armand, and me a little more hesitant, but as long as we focus on her safety we thought it would be alright.

At least that was the plan, but the lizardmen in our group aren’t like the ones in the demi-human village, and definitely aren’t like the ones in the dungeon we fought. We of course knew they would be sentient, but we honestly expected them to be like the ones in the demi-human village, which means we thought they would be a bit more primitive…

However they articulate their words very well, and their motivations, although very lizardmen-like in nature, can easily be paired with a human’s. Jitrick the male lizardman wishes to become the clan leader for the lizardmen of Master’s dungeon, but that could just as easily be a human wishing to become the mayor, a duke, or the like.

Meanwhile, Qas, the female wants to be a clutch-mother for the lizardmen of Master’s dungeon. Which in human terms is like a caregiver to the children, or perhaps a teacher? And if you can’t sympathize with that, odds are you can’t call yourself sentient to begin with…

“Alright everyone…We need to make sure you all get trained, but we need to do so safely, so Dreues, Armand and I will go in first, dealing with the majority of the monsters, and once there is only one or two left you three can come in and clean up the rest.”

The representative from Ceres’s dungeon, that introduced himself to us earlier as Hughes, looks at us a bit curiously and says. “I guess everyone has their own idea of training, but I assure you no matter which door you choose, the first room at least should be easy enough. Especially when two of the members are such advanced forms of lizardmen…”

Dreues: “Have you ever lost friends in a dungeon?”

Hughes: “No…”

Dreues: “Well we have, and it is not something I wish to repeat, if possible, so until the new members of our group get a few levels under their belts, forgive us if we are a bit cautious.”

Hughes: “I’m here to make sure that doesn’t happen, but I’m sorry if you took offense, I was just trying to help…”

“And we appreciate it, but once we leave here, we only have ourselves to rely on, so we may be overly cautious, but in the long run it is better safe than sorry.”

Hughes: “You’re right, I’m sorry…”

“Dreues, Armand… Let’s do this!”

The three of us enter the first door and the neutral stone building-like interior quickly melts away into room of molten rock. Fire spits from cracks in the wall and small streams of magma flow through trenches in the floor, causing heat to poor from the door into the central room as we pass inside.

On the far side of the room there are small dancing flames, that are not part the room. The flames start creeping across the floor in our direction.

“Fire elementals! They don’t look very strong, but we have to find the cores among the flames!”

I cast a wind spell trying to scatter the fire to find the elemental’s core, while Armand casts a water spell completely dousing one of the flames causing a small spherical molten core to hit the floor as it puts off steam.

Dreues just uses his shield to hit one of the flames causing the small molten core to fly through the air and crash into the wall. The fire elementals really are bottom of the barrel, and it is now clear their core is in the dead center of their bodies, so I swiftly take out two more.

That only leaves two more of the elementals, so I call out to the others. “Your turn! Their cores are in the dead center of the flames, and it should only take a good whack to take them out.”

Qas is a water mage as well, so she extinguishes another of the elementals, it may not have been as flashy or quick, but the elemental is just as dead. Elwisia, the new human girl in our group looks down at her hands wrapped in bandages and at the remaining flame elemental unsure what to do.

Jitrick however steps forward swinging his sword in a large arc taking out the last elemental in the process.

Elwisia: “I’m sorry, I didn’t know what to do…”

“That is quite alright, a flame elemental is a pretty bad matchup for you right out of the gate, so perhaps we can do something about that. Hughes, you are supposed to give us a hand if we need something right? What about some kind of weapon for Elwisia, so she doesn’t have to try to use her bare hands against these things?”

Armand: “And what about the magic stones from the elementals, are we allowed to take them, or do we leave everything behind?”

Hughes: “You are allowed to kill and loot any monster in which you run into in Mistress’s dungeon, and I have permission to provide simple items you group might need, but a weapon… I may have to ask for something like that.”

“Elwisia, isn’t going to be able to participate like this, so how about this… Armand, let me see those stones.” –I say since Armand started gathering the magic stones from the elemental’s cores after getting permission.-

Armand: “All of them…?”

“I am sure there are plenty more ahead.” –He hands them over to me.- “One, two, three, four, five, six… Six tiny magic stones, here.” –I say handing them to Hughes.- “That should be more than enough to cover the cost of a quarterstaff if nothing else, although I would prefer a weapon not made of wood…”

Hughes sighs and opens his [Menu], the magic stones then disappear from his hand, and in their place is two small metal rods, each with a small leather bound grip sticking three-quarters of the way down the shaft. “They are not much, but they should do the job…”

Elwisia: “A pair of tonfas? That should do the trick. Thank you.”

Hughes: “They should get you by for a little while, but I would suggest asking your own Master, or going into town in the evening to get something better.”

Elwisia takes the two weapons and tests them out for a minute, before we prepare to enter the next room. Those elementals were pretty easy, so if the next room holds the same thing we might leave a few more for the new members to take care of on their own.

However that doesn’t seem to be the case, The next room has much larger elementals, but their cores are much smaller, they also move around so it hard to pinpoint where to hit them. That isn’t to say they are difficult for Dreues, Armand, and me to handle, but we are hesitant to leave even more than one of them for the new members to handle.

To be on the safe side we left only one alive before calling for the others to enter, but perhaps we are worrying to much because after a quick blast of water from Qas, Elwisia was able to see the core and was able to take it down with her new weapons.

Armand: “Man, its hot in here! –He says while gathering the magic stones from the fallen elementals.- “I don’t see how you can walk in here barefoot, even in my boots, it feels like my feet are cooking.” –He says to the nearby Jitrick.-

Jitrick: “As long as I don’t step in any of those streams it isn’t too bad, but I doubt even those boots of yours would help you there.”

“Just be glad we are bound to Master’s dungeon, can you imagine how hot it would feel if we weren't?”

Dreues: “I know I can go for a nice cool bath after we get out of here. Do we have anything like that back at camp?”

Hughes: “I don’t believe so, no, but if it something you feel strongly about perhaps you can petition my mistress for one after the training for the day is complete.”

Elwisia: “Oh, that would be nice…”

“We have only just begun, so don’t start counting the minutes yet…”

Dreues: “Maybe we should go try another one of the rooms, not only the heat, but even the elementals are a bit much for a beginning adventurer.”

“We don’t even know if they will be any better, let’s just do what we can here, and then we can worry about the other doors.”

We move on to the next room only to find even tougher elementals! With these elementals being even tougher then the last we cut the groups size down to one yet again. This time all three of the new members get to at least get an attack in before the elemental falls.

We continue on after Armand gathers the magic stones, and we continue the process all over this time with even tougher fire elementals. This time the elemental we left the new members to deal with on their own, managed to do a little damage, but they still manage without our assistance.

After the battle is over though, we quickly heal them up, and decide on what to do next.

“The elementals are getting exponentially stronger, we should consider turning back and trying another door, before we get in too deep and have to rely on Hughes to save us.”

Dreues: “I agree, we have plenty of time, and no reason to push our luck.”

Jitrick: “If you think it is for the best, but if the next door we chose is filled with rooms covered in ice I will most definitely want to come back here.”

Elwisia: “If it is full of ice, I am going to lay on it!”

Armand: “So you can handle the heat, but not the cold?”

Jitrick: “It kinda comes with the whole lizard thing…”

Qas: “Speak for yourself, I am perfectly comfortable in either.”

Jitrick: “That is because you are a glacial lizardman! That makes you the exception, not the rule.”

“You still called her a lizardman… I was curious about that.”

Qas: “My race is lizardman and I am a woman, just like you are a human and a woman, you don’t call yourself a huwoman do you?”

“Well, no, but you can have one human or many humans, it never changes, but a single lizardman and many lizardmen. That makes it sound like Lizard-man .”

Qas: “If it bothers you that much just call me by name…”

“Of course, but I didn’t mean to offend, I was just curious is all.”

Qas: “No offense taken. So, shall we continue?”

We return to the central room, and close the door the drastic change of temperature is almost jarring. We make for the next door and prepare before opening it, but as soon as we do another wave of heat blasts us, and we quickly see another room much like the ones through the last door.

“We should still go first, just in case, but if there are just more elementals we will call you in and see about dealing with all of them together.”

As soon as we enter the room however we don’t find more fire elementals, but small gelatinous balls of burning goo, and they start slithering our way.

“They look like normal slimes, but they are on fire… What should we do?”

Armand: “I will attack one with a really weak water spell, and if it does the trick then we call the others, but if not we cut down their numbers first.”

Armand then casts his spell, and a small jet of water hits the slime, snuffing out its fire and smearing what is left of it across the floor.

Dreues: “That seemed to have worked, alright everyone!”

Everyone else enters the room and we quickly dispatch the flaming slimes, we asked Hughes about them afterwards but he just told us they are called pyro slimes, but that was as much detail about them as he would go into.

Armand takes a few samples from the remains of the slime, but they don’t possess any magic stones or anything else of value that we know of. We then continue on to the next room as a team.

The next room has more slimes, but they are much larger and stronger than the last, but between the six of us we deal with them without problems. In the third room we have the new members hold back until we deal with a few of them, then bring the new members in, and have them help with the remaining slimes.

We do this again for the fourth room, but the slimes have gotten strong enough that the new members have already begun to struggle. We then progress into the fifth room, dealing with all but one of the slimes, and having the new members help us with it.

To be on the safe side we return to the central room after that.

Qas: “You think the next door is the same way?”

“I think it is a fair assumption, but we better do like we did with this one, just to be sure.”

After the pyro slimes, we dealt with some fiery snakes that quickly grew between rooms. We didn’t make it far enough to be sure, but I think they might have been some lower form of those salamander monsters.

Next was some red lizardmen that made all of us except Jitrick and Qas uncomfortable. They said they are non-sentient, so they are just monsters, but we were all happy when we returned to the central room after they became too strong.

We went through a few more doors and got a fair bit more comfortable fighting with one another, and seen some interesting fire monsters, but when evening rolled around we were all quite hot and tired…

We use a few [Clean] spells to clean up all the sweat and grime, but that doesn’t help much with the fatigue. We checked out the statuses of the group and even though Elwisia reached level 9, Jitrick and Qas only reached level 3, but it is surely because they are monsters without an actual class.

I ask Hughes, if he will check with his Mistress about the bath situation, but before he receives a reply, not only his Mistress, but Master, his wife, and their daughter appear in the camp for a visit!