After a few minutes of staring at the dungeon seed, I shook my head. It was the first time I was told I couldn’t build a dungeon where I wanted to. I understood it, but also I didn’t. It would have made the dungeon so much stronger if it could have just started to claim the whole castle.

In fact, if I could have gotten it to claim the castle, I could have taken out the lich with no problem. Just turn the castle into a dungeon and then turn the dungeon against the lich. Of course, it wouldn’t have been that straightforward, but it would have been close.

I sighed, placed the dungeon seed back into my hip pouch, and headed to the escape door. If I couldn’t place the core in the castle, I could put it right next to it and rest there. Then after we rested up and got ready, we could finish the attack.

I was glad I had cheats like this but was angry that it wasn’t working. When I reached the door, I touched it, and a magical viewport opened. I stepped back, and the port on the door vanished. Then I reached back out, and the same view showed up. I was looking out of the doorway like I was on the other side of the door.

I looked around and, waiting just to the right, up the stairs, was the largest and ugliest rat I had ever seen. All of the rats that we had seen up to this point were what I would think of as just overgrown rats. It was easy to forget that sometimes there were deviations to normal growth here as things leveled.

So this giant rat was also armored and had a fan-shaped bone ridge that ran between its eyes to the top of its head. It was thin, but I could tell by looking at it that the thing was strong and meant for slicing. Its claws had a slight greenish glow around them, and something appeared to ooze down them. He watched the door bunched up like a great cat ready to pounce.

I focused on him, hoping my ability to identify using the visual interface would work through the door. It took a moment, and then it clicked.

Huge Giant Rat (Level 43)

HP: 1275

Weight: 875 lbs

Armor Rating: 7

Fan Damage: 17 +5 poison

Acid Spray: 30 +5 per second for 60 seconds

Claws: slashing damage 12 +8 Poison 5 per second for 10 stackable.

Giant rats are the largest of the rats. That said, sometimes they get even bigger as they level. This one has gotten so massive that it is now a huge giant rat. This rodent is clearly even more unusual in size than others and has increased its abilities as it has leveled.

I might would have thought about opening the door if it had just been the single Huge Giant Rat. However, with the rest of the rats that weren’t down below eating their fallen also milling around, my idea of where to put a dungeon was quickly put to rest. Even I wasn’t dense enough to think we had a way to beat them back long enough to set up a dungeon.

I pulled my hand off the door and turned back around. Kasidy had rubbed her face enough that it was hard to see the tear streaks, but I could see the smug marks. She was likely having problems with all the fighting since she was just a barmaid that I pulled into this mess. That said, I was just a call center supervisor, but I was handling everything much better.

I took a step over and knelt near Kasidy, and asked. “Kas, you okay?”

She took a big deep breath and nodded. Then as she let it out, she shook her head. The tears looked like they were about to return when Irwin moaned and pushed himself back up.

Irwin groaned out. “I think I can move now.”

I flashed Kasidy a smile, and she gave me back a weaker one. Then I stood up and offered her my hand. She took it, and I pulled her up.

When she was up, I leaned forward and softly said. “Kas, thanks for being here. I know it’s rough right now, but we will get through this. I’ll watch out for you, and you’ll be okay.”

She smiled slightly, nodded, and then helped me get Irwin up. I picked up my standard, passed it to Kasidy, and grabbed Irwin’s staff from the floor. Somehow he held on to it while being passed out. I did a quick check, and the mana crystal was still full, which made sense as it was slated to only work with healing spells.

I passed the staff back to Irwin. “You good to walk?”

He nodded. “Yes, My lord and I can heal for a while with my staff.”

I shook my head. “I still need to get y’all to stop calling me my lord. I might have a title, but I am nothing special.”

He gave me a big smiled and went to laugh but winced. “No, my lord, you are special and even more so in the way of nobility. You might be new to the title, but how you handle things shows that you are special. Even more so once we remove this lich and restore the pass.”

We slowly moved down the passage the thirty feet or so to where Renfry stood watch. I stopped us when we got there so that I could go over everything that I knew.

I took a deep breath and started in. “Okay, so to start with, I check in with Blink. She is hungry and thirsty but seems to be okay beyond that. The lich is still making undead which isn’t surprising. What is surprising is that there are people that are working with the lich. Or perhaps the lich is working for them. Blink showed me a memory of two men coming to get him, and they didn’t seem like they cared much for him.

I don’t know how much longer Blink can go without water, so we need to press on and get to her. The problem is that we also need rest. The rats were far harder than I thought they would be, and I don’t like the added issue of more people as they will be less predictable than the lich.”

Kasidy’s eyes lit up, and she smiled. “Can’t you make a dungeon here, and then we can rest in the Safe room and then move on?”

I sighed and shook my head. “I tried. Turns out that the castle is too high a level for the dungeon seed to be able to take over, so it won’t even try to form a dungeon here.”

Renfry gave a solemn nod and asked. “Could we exit the castle and set up a dungeon?”

I shook my head. “Sadly, I don’t think so. That giant rat we saw just the eyes of. The one with the acid attack. Well, it is just outside the door waiting to pounce, and it is level 43 with over a thousand HP. I’m not seeing us killing it with our current levels. Perhaps by itself, we might, but that would still mean we would have to sneak up on it.”

Renfry nodded slowly. “So, for now, we rest here and then press on?”

I looked over at Irwin and then at Kasidy. “No, we are going to press on now and hope to find another exit from the castle. Some other spot that isn’t rat infested. Irwin is good to heal us some with the staff providing mana to him, and he isn’t leaking out what he has. He just can’t produce his own right now. Resting would just slow us down even more and not help much. Unless we sit still for a day, we aren’t getting our mana potions back.”

Renfry gave a single nod. “Forward?”

“Forward.”

We all started to move as a tight bunch down the hallway. Unlike in the stairs, there was plenty of light, and until the hall turned, we could see quite the distance. As we moved, I checked my map overlay that I now always had on. It showed that we were moving roughly in the right direction. Not knowing where this hall would let out bugged me some but not much. After all, this was escape tunnel four, so taking it backward should dump me where I needed to be.

After about half an hour, we got to our first intersection. The tunnel had twisted and turned as we went, so we didn’t even see it until we were there. We took a hard left, and then we were at a choice. We could keep going forward or make a hard right. Forward seemed to take us away from where Blink was, but right was through a door.

Renfry paused and looked back at me. “My lord?”

I glanced at both and then said. “Okay, so we have the option of going forward, which currently isn’t in the right direction or through the door but in the right direction. If we were completely ready, I would pick forward, but since we are hopeful of a break, I think we might want to do the door. Thoughts?”

Renfry asked. “Shall we open it to see what’s through it first?”

I nodded, and he tried to push open the door, but it didn’t budge. “Okay, Renfry, let me see if it will let me through.”

He stepped back as I stepped up to it. As I laid my hand on the nob, I got a message.

Escape tunnel 4B

Tunnel Collapsed, reroute unfinished

Open Tunnel

Yes/No

I popped open the door and looked through it. The door opened to a landing and then wide stairs like I had seen in every office building I worked in. The stairs, like the ones that I had seen before coming into the tunnel, were cut right from the stone and one piece. They were grayish-white and appeared to be in perfect condition.

I stepped back to let everyone else see. “SO… Stairs.”

Kasidy spoke up first. “I don’t know if Irwin could do the stairs and then get back up.”

Irwin grunted. “I can manage… might be a bit slower, but I should be able to make it.”

Kasidy was right. Irwin still looked like crap and had been dragging his feet. I was impressed that he wasn’t complaining, but I could also see that he was barely moving. He had only mentioned that his mana was stuck and not regenerating, but I suspected he might also be having a stamina problem as well. He didn’t say so, but there seemed to be a solid possibility he had used his All or Nothing skill when he summoned Sparkles.

I glanced at Renfry. He was currently our most combat capable. If he stayed behind, we should have enough protection that there wouldn’t be much of an issue. The problem, of course, was that splitting the party was never good. Then again, we had done an okay job with that before, so it might not be too big a problem.

I made up my mind and gave everyone a smile. “Okay, I am going to head down the stairs and see if there is someplace where I can set up a dungeon. If not, then I am going to be right back up. I don’t know how long the stairs are, but it shouldn’t be too bad. The door said the tunnel had collapsed, so perhaps I can find a way out quickly.”

* * *