"There's going to be lava around," Levi warned as they neared the entrance. "It's usually in pretty obvious crevices, but you have to stay alert. Do not fall into it, it's very dangerous."

Peter nodded seriously, relaying the instructions to his dilo, Henry, who also nodded. Greg the ogre was harder to convince and kept shrugging as though it didn't matter to him. When Peter very seriously repeated that he wasn't to go stepping into lava, Greg held up his fists as though ready to do battle with the lava.

Levi wondered if that were an artifact of how Peter perceived the ogre, or whether ogres really were that stupid.

Fire Dungeon: Level 1

The entry room was uncomfortably warm, but not dangerously so. At higher levels, anyone without a fire resistance elixir wouldn't survive setting foot in a Fire dungeon, let alone fighting in one, but this one should be fine. Levi had them wait for several minutes to be certain, and only once he was sure of its safety did he gesture for them to proceed.

The entry room was floored in black stone, with a winding crack splitting the room in two. It was no wider than two feet, easy to step over, but the heat and glow emanating from it were clear warning of the lava contained within.

"There will probably be some magma snakes coming up from the crack to attack us, either as we get near or once we're past."

Cen and Centoo split off to either side, advancing upon the stream of lava ahead of the humans. Gremlin Three stood back, javelin at the ready.

Sure enough, as soon as the centipedes neared the rift, a small red snake with brilliant gold patterns slithered up out and advanced on them, mouth open and white-hot fangs bared to strike.

"Dad, Dad, I want one!" Peter started to run forward, then checked himself and turned back. "Can I?"

Levi nodded, gesturing for Cen to move a little closer.

The snake moved fast, leaving a fading trail of red in its wake, but it was still only level 1 and only a bit larger than a normal snake.

Peter struck fast and jumped back, the snake's retaliatory bite missing as he laughed. "Hah, I'm going to get you."

He stabbed down again, and this time the snake's health dropped below half. Centoo's bladed legs clicked against the stone as he ran to intercept a second snake emerging from the rift, stabbing down to finish it in seconds.

They really were overpowered for any level 1 dungeon at this point, but there were enough members of their team who needed early experience that it wasn't a waste of time yet.

Peter lunged again, but his jump to escape after striking wasn't quite fast enough. The snake's strike would have bit into his leg if not for Cen, who snagged its tail just in time and dragged it back. The snake's searing-hot fangs burned a line across Peter's leather leg armor, but did not hit directly enough to pierce through.

Peter jumped back even further with a surprised shout, and Cen held the snake while he gathered himself - though it did rear back and bite the centipede, twice, before Peter recovered.

"Sorry," he shouted, then stabbed down one last time to drop the snake's health into taming range. "I CHOOSE YOU!" he shouted as he cast Tame, and the Magma Serpent stopped fighting. "You'll be… Crimson."

Crimson hissed and nodded in agreement, then slithered over to Irene for healing. While she assessed the new snake, Levi had Peter repeat its stats for him to add to his growing database.

Crimson: Level 1 Magma Serpent

Strength: 0

Health: 40/40

(+1/min)

Psyche: 1

Mana: 35/35

(+2/min)

Spirit: 0

Stamina: 50/50

(+1/min) Strength: +5 Health, +1 H-Regen Psyche: +15 Mana, +1 M-Regen Spirit: +20 Stamina, +1 S-Regen

And, since he realized now he’d forgotten to do so after the last dungeon, Greg’s info as well.

Greg: Level 1 Cave Ogre +

Strength: 1

Health: 250/250

(+6/min)

Psyche: 0

Mana: 20/20

(+1/min)

Spirit: 0

Stamina: 85/85

(+2/min) Strength: +50 Health, +3 H-Regen Psyche: +5 Mana, +1 M-Regen Spirit: +20 Stamina, +2 S-Regen

Another magma snake attempted an ambush while they were talking, but Two stabbed it a few times and Becca finished it off. The opening room had plenty of room for everyone, but once they headed into the first hallway it began to feel a bit crowded. Frosty and the shadevines ran along the ceiling, Cen and Centoo took to the walls, but Greg had to duck to fit through. The dungeon wasn't designed with ogres in mind.

The second room contained a pit of fire with a wide bridge across it, but the way the bridge was constructed made Levi absolutely certain that it was a trap. It was three tiles across, actual tiles, each with bevels that made them look vaguely like large buttons.

"That bridge is very suspicious," Levi said, holding out an arm to stop anyone trying to cross it. "If half those tiles aren't the sort to collapse under you and drop you into the pit, then I'll be very surprised."

"How do we test it to get across safely?" Peter asked. "Can we go along the very edges?"

"It looks like the tiles are flush with each other. All it would take is two next to each other that both fall, and that's the end of that."

There was no railing, no guard rope, nothing but the triple row of button-tiles suspended across the flames.

Then Peter grinned. "I can send Crimson. She'll be fine in the fire. Right?"

Levi nodded slowly. "I'm not sure if magma snakes are immune to fire or just lava, but she'd probably be a better choice than anyone else."

He could easily revive her if it went wrong, and if it went wrong too many times he could always catch another one.

The snake made it two tiles in before the stone collapsed beneath her, dropping her into the pit.

Peter ran over to the edge of the pit and crouched down. "Crimson! Can you come up here?" He patted the stone beside him.

Crimson tried her best, but the walls of this pit were more sheer than the slanted walls of the magma rift. She was only able to slither along the ground, extending up the wall until she had to leave the floor behind, then falling back. She tried again and again at different points, but...

"She's stuck. How can we get her out?" Peter didn't pause before answering his own question. "Greg, jump in after her."

Before Levi could protest, the ogre jumped into the pit. While the pit was a bit deeper than what Levi could comfortably climb out of, the ogre was also taller than a human and his head still stuck up past the flame. His health started dropping at once, but he stooped down, grabbed Crimson, then hoisted himself up out before his massive health pool reached half.

"Good work, team!" Peter praised Greg, high-fiving the ogre.

Becca licked her paw in clear dismissal as she watched. Then, casual as could be, she started walking across the bridge, testing each tile with one paw while Irene used yet another restorative to tend to the burned ogre.

Twice, a tile collapsed not just itself but the one behind or next to it, dropping Becca into the pit, but she rift-jumped back to safety before she could hit the bottom. Only once she'd made it all the way across and then back did she purr smugly and push her head against Levi's stomach in clear demand for praise.

"You were magnificent," he told her, rubbing behind her ears. "Good thinking."

Cen and Frosty had already crossed via the walls, then returned, then crossed again by the time the rest of the party had traversed the bridge, but with all the dropping tiles already removed the crossing was far from impossible. Only time consuming.

The next room was another with lava, but in the shape of a maze instead of plain rifts. Each meandering lava river was too wide to easily jump, forcing them to actually solve the maze. Well, Levi could jump it easily with stamina, but he wasn't going to risk Peter doing the same.

"Wait there, I'll scout it out," he said, then took a running jump and stamina-pushed himself into a triple hop from one safe island to another, past three different river turnings, and out to the end. As usual, solving the maze backwards was much more effective than stumbling through it, and he walked back to the group, Frosty marking the route from above with her webbing. She probably could have done it without Levi, but he preferred action to standing around waiting so it worked out fine either way.

Seven magma serpents tried to ambush them while they traversed the maze, but as before they were too weak to do more than be a minor nuisance. Levi's team handled the attacks with hardly a pause.

The next room was the last room, the boss room. A simple round chamber with an oversized magma serpent coiled in its center.

The monster didn’t resemble any particular normal snake, having a bony ridge down its spine that stabbed up in jagged spikes, serrated and glowed with red light. Another bony ridge crossed its forehead, crowned with spikes jutting out in every direction like organic barbed wire. Its eyes glowed fire-orange and as it opened its mouth to hiss at the intruders, magma dripped from its fangs to sizzle onto the floor.

Three overlapping circles of red light were spread out around the snake, connected with shorter curving lines that gave the entire chamber an eerie red underglow. The ceiling was almost unseen, dim and distant.

Levi grinned as he looked over the snake. "That one's mine."