“Can someone remind me how I ended up here?” Unlike the last time I’d gotten drunk off of Emer’Thalis moonshine, I hadn’t done it in the bar, which meant none of the bar’s building bonuses applied. In this case, that meant I was woefully, abysmally hungover.

That only made me question what I was doing even more so as I scanned the room, taking in the obsidian walls that surrounded me.

My words were met with a lighthearted chuckle from a well-mustached, scissors-wielding man. “If I recall correctly, dear, you came barging into my residence shouting something about ‘introducing your friend to your father’ and ‘fulfilling your promise to him.’ You know, this isn’t even the first time you’ve ended up here after drinking. Rather amusing how that works out, is it not?”

Ugh. I know the goal was to get blindingly drunk, but was I really dumb enough to do that? Of course, I had promised Emin a look at the dungeon. When I’d convinced him to come here instead of running after Warram, I’d done so by telling him he could see the dark dungeon where my obsidian had come from. That didn’t mean I’d planned on running it, and especially not hungover with my “dad” chaperoning us.

Oblivious to my thoughts, Barb stepped over to where my previous night’s drinking companion groggily stood, wrapping an arm around him. “I do say, though, getting drunk with a boy and bringing him home to your father… I don’t need to have a talk with you, young man, do I?” He squeezed hard, turning his grip into a side hug while Emin squirmed under both the touch and the words.

“Yes, yes, very funny. Can we leave teasing Emin until we’re out of the dungeon that wants to kill us, though?” The shades of the first room didn’t leave any corpses, but as I looked about, the signs of our first fight were clear, from the splatters of mud on the wall to the chunks of rock and dirt that littered the ground.

All in all, I would have understood if someone called me dumb for being here. Mainly, I would have understood because they’d have been right. Barb was well aware that everyone in Sylum thought he was my father, and he seemed to find acting the part to be a delightful diversion. More than that, he’d gotten the others on board as well, at least to the extent that they wouldn’t give the ruse away. Even so, it seemed like an unnecessary risk to have Emin see me side by side with dear old dad.

Past that, though, especially after hearing Carpin tell me about the recent full party wipe, coming into a dungeon hungover with someone who’d never run a dungeon before seemed like a pretty dumb move.

In my defense, I’d been very, very drunk. And hey, it wasn’t like I was going to back out now, was it? Plus, the party was a good one, and I knew firsthand that we’d have no issues clearing the dungeon even if I wasn’t at my best.

“I like new friends!” A scaled, gator-like man wearing a polka-dotted party hat chimed in, giving a solid thumbs up.

The entire gang made an appearance for this run, with Kex standing off to the side, staring into space. Eak, the hairless, buff healer we’d teamed up with last time around, was also along for the ride. The presence of an entire six people within the dungeon would greatly reduce our experience and reward quality, but it wasn’t disallowed outright. With Emin having never been inside a dungeon before, I hadn’t been ready to swap out anyone with him, and I figured it was better to be safe than sorry.

“I suppose if I can’t tease the boy until we’re done, then we should get to it, hmm? Lead the way, daughter of mine.” Barb motioned to the chamber’s exit, signaling that it was time for Trap-finder Tess to take charge, and I acquiesced. Far from leaving Emin alone, however, Barb maintained his grip on the researcher. As I moved off to clear our way ahead, I caught him sparking up a conversation despite his earlier words.

“So! What’s new in Sylum, lad? I try to get updates from the girl, but it’s always different hearing it from a native, hmm? Tell me everything…”

I rolled my eyes, only to catch a glint of metal as I did so.

Ooh, tripwire.

If the dungeon had been fairly straightforward the first time around, it was almost laughable this time. For one thing, the only seriously hard part of our first run had been Slippy the Gentle Garden Snake, and with us having already cleared his room, he didn’t make a reappearance (although Emin was nearly frothing at the mouth when we told him about the various plants that could be grown in the hidden room).

On top of that, Barb and co. had been running the dungeon as often as they could since I’d gone back to Sylum. The four of them were veritable veterans at this point, and it showed.

The surprise factor that added to our success, however, was the new addition to the party. Had Nella had an opportunity to see Emin in action like this, I was confident she would have never asked for the team fight in the first place.

Ultimately, Emin’s class was farther reaching and more versatile than I would have guessed. Though it seemed to strain him, if he focused hard he could pull a shade’s immateriality from it, phasing it fully into the physical world.

Naturally, this delighted Jason who was more than happy to pelt said shades with rocks.

Dark, camouflaged monsters received vibrant, neon skin, courtesy of some strange samples he’d brought along. With my darksight and Perception, it didn’t help me much, but the added visibility was a boon to the rest of the party.

Wolves found themselves gunked up, much the same way that Emin had stopped Daymon (and much to the bemusement of Barb who had to clean the secretions off of his scissors). Bats found themselves falling to the floor as the normally beneficial stoneskin buff proved too weighty for them to bear.

And that was only mentioning the debuffs. The effects he had on all of us were equally if not more pronounced. The simplest of them affected our resources, augmenting us with the traits of mana-rich plants to increase our mana regeneration and augmenting us with the traits of particularly hardy animals to boost and bolster our stamina.

There were a few hiccups. He unexpectedly applied a stoneskin buff to Barb a few times when the barber was close to getting hit. Instead of protecting him, however, it merely threw him off, the extra weight making him lose a few beats whenever it came on. Eventually, Barb just asked him to stop.

I was pretty sure Emin could have done more, too -- like steal traits from me and give them to another party member -- but without knowing all of our abilities and having not practiced with us before, he was clearly wary of trying such a thing, and understandably so. It was something to look forward to once we started drilling with our party back in Sylum.

With Emin added to the mix though, even while fighting off the last bits of my hangover, the fights came and went without any major incidents. The boss, same as the last time I’d been here, was taken down just as easily. As to be expected with six of us in play, the rewards were pretty lackluster, and I didn’t manage to snag any gear that would be an upgrade, but the experience was nice nonetheless. Especially with all the class quests I’d completed recently, I was getting ever closer to level 13.

The fall of the boss, however, was not the end of the dungeon.

Much like in Drawgin’s mud dungeon, when we began the final boss fight, the room sealed us in, not allowing for any escape. Unlike in Drawgin, however, once we defeated the boss, the rock barring our way back opened up again, allowing us to backtrack.

Had this been a few months prior, there wouldn’t have been any reason to backtrack. Now, however, it was a different story. I pulled up the description of one of my newly augmented skills, equally eager to put it to use as I was bothered by its constant feedback.

Augment of Delving

All Detect Secret skill effects are strengthened while in dungeons.

Gain a vague sense of what percentage of secrets have been uncovered on your current floor of a dungeon.

Chance to increase the value or quantity of any hidden treasures found in dungeons by a small amount.

The added sense was taking a while to get used to, constantly just there, sitting in the back of my head. What it was telling me, however, was clear: We’d barely scratched the surface of all the secrets that the dungeon held.

It didn’t take much convincing to get the rest of the party on board with a quick secret-finding mission, and so, as one, we went back into the now-emptied dungeon.

“I must admit, I’m rather curious to see what we find; however, if you didn’t spot something on the way here, from where does your confidence arise that you’ll find it presently?” Barb stabbed his scissors into the earth beneath him as he walked, using his weapon as a glorified walking stick.

It was a reasonable question, all things considered. “I have a lot of vision skills I haven’t been using too much. Mostly I’ve been focused on trap finding when we’re in between rooms, but I haven’t been searching every nook and cranny quite as carefully.” It didn’t really feel like your average room warranted me turning on the Water Sight or Ghost Eye variants of my Arcane Vision, for instance.

Still, with how little we’d managed to find on our first pass through the dungeon, I figured a little overkill couldn’t hurt. As we returned to the dungeon’s start, I cycled through all of my mana types, paying extra attention to the ground and the walls.

For a few rooms, we got nothing, making me wonder if I was dragging us along on a wild goose chase. Finally, however, we got a bite. As if to mock my earlier judgment, it was Ghost Eye that finally caught something, its ability to pierce through solid matter coming in handy.

“I’m picking up something dead buried below. Err. Or undead, I guess, but I’m guessing it’s just normal dead.” I pointed to the earth above what I was picking up, and almost instantly, the ground started to shift as Kex went to work.

Glad we have someone who knows earth magic. It would have been a pain to dig all of that up.

What would have normally taken a few minutes as the fastest was resolved in the span of seconds as our quarry was quickly uncovered. Sitting there beneath us was…

“Is- is that a bone?” Emin hunched over the hole, nearly tripping into it as he peered down at what we’d found.

For my part, I confirmed his words with God’s Eye.

Alpha Dark Wolf Femur

A blackened bone from the strongest wolf in its pack, seeped in dark mana over the course of untold years. Crafting material.

I related what the notification said, and this time Emin did fall into the hole, apparently unable to keep himself from snatching the bone up. He climbed out with the femur, clutching it close to himself, practically salivating over it like… well, a dog with a bone.

“Ooh, the properties this might hold! What an exciting find!” He started poking and prodding at the femur, and with his skills in play, portions of it proceeded to change color.

We’d figure out the exact distribution of loot at the end, but for now it seemed that the researcher was intent on lugging about our newest find.

“Good!” Barb chimed in. “I believe I’m sold, daughter dearest. Let’s see what else we can find then, hmm?”

Over the course of the next hour, we made discovery after discovery. Earth Vision managed to find a small chest buried beneath us. Detect Trap informed me it was trapped, but without any of us overly skilled at disarming traps, we just had Kex’s mud golem smash it open. It was possible we’d destroyed anything fragile inside, but if nothing else, the sizable number of gold coins within managed to withstand the force.

Gust Sight found us a small slit in the wall with air coming out of it. A few punches from Jason managed to tear down the obsidian around it, admitting us access to a small alcove. A pitch-black mask lay within, capable of purifying the air and enhancing any breath-related skills. The purification was interesting, but it wasn’t a great fit for any of us, and we agreed to sell it.

A vein of mana-enriched iron. Some rare moss which blended in near perfectly with the walls. A few truffles that could be used for either cooking or alchemy. Bit by bit, I could feel as the “secret counter” ticked up, getting us closer and closer to completion.

Still, by the time we were nearing the first room of the dungeon, I could tell we weren’t going to get everything. As best I could tell, we’d only grabbed about 50% of what the dungeon had to offer so far. Much higher than most parties, probably, but somehow disappointing nonetheless.

Without a single new discovery, we made it to the very first room, and I kicked into overdrive trying to find at least one more thing.

Come on, come on. I switched on even the most useless of my vision skills on the off chance of finding something.

Gust Sight. No. All normal. Vitality Sight. Nothing. Heat Sight. Everything’s the same. Water Sight. Not like there’d be water anywhe- Wait, what?

As I spun about, trying to get Water Sight access to all 360 degrees, I felt the slightest of pulls in one of the directions. But where? I honed in on where it felt strongest, tilting my head up and down to see if the signal would improve.

And it did! I wasn’t exactly sure what to think, but apparently there was water beneath us.

After playing some “hotter, colder” for a while and narrowing down exactly where to look, I assembled the party and kicked the site in question. “Kex, I think there’s some sort of water beneath here. Can you dig down a little?”

She did so without pause, and I had to jump back as the earth beneath me started to move. Down and down and down her magic dug, the loose dirt getting funneled into a massive ball of mud off to the side. I was beginning to doubt myself, as the growing hole was already significantly deeper than when we’d found the femur, but right as I was considering calling it quits, we struck water. It was black water, to be sure, but water nonetheless.

Some sort of well, maybe?

Without having to be asked, Kex spat a large glob of mud down the hole. When it plopped into the water below, it transformed, morphing into a miniature fish.

“Swim, swim little fish,” Kex intoned. Her mud creation darted downwards, and it took a startlingly long time before the mud mage gave us any information.

“Loooong tunnel. Water filled. Some fish. Normal ones. No monsters. Big lake at the end.”

After a brief set of glances towards one another, we all seemed to agree to check it out. Kex formed us a ramp down, and this time it was Eak who took the lead. The Disciple of the Revitalizing River specialized in water magic, and with him in play, we were saved from having a long swim ahead of us. The moment we reached the water, it began fleeing from us, only to curve around, forming a sphere encasing us all. Though it seemed to take a lot out of him, Eak propelled us through the tunnel, his skills serving as a miniature submarine.

I stayed vigilant the entire time, worried that some trap was about to activate or some burrowing monster would take notice of us, but no. It took nearly ten minutes before we were finally through, but at last the tunnel angled upwards, spitting us out into a massive lake.

Eak ferried us to the side, depositing the six of us completely dry onto the lake shore before collapsing. It was something of an oversight, perhaps, as if this ended up being another hidden boss fight, he was out of commission for a while.

Thankfully, however, nothing attacked us. Instead…

“It’s beautiful,” Emin whispered.

And it was. Mushrooms and mosses and various plants ringed the lake and grew out of the walls, a great number of them glowing in a myriad of different colors. A far cry from its usual uninterrupted black, the wall teemed with veins of metal, all of them shining under the bioluminescence surrounding them. A singular, stunted tree grew to human height, its bark a glassy black, its leaves sharp and rigid.

As we were all taking it in, a notification popped up.

Congratulations! You have discovered a resource room.

These rare non-combat rooms contain a concentration of dungeon-related resources.

Nice. Assuming it’s not lying, the whole “non-combat” part of things makes me feel a lot better.

Just as I’d thought that, Emin let out a shout, the remaining five of us swiftly jerking towards him.

He sat crouched down by one of the mushrooms, and my mind instantly jumped to the worst. Poisoned? Paralyzed? Attacked by something? Before I could continue to conjure up a million different horrible scenarios, however, he shouted out once more, this time in explanation.

“I leveled!” Mushroom temporarily forgotten, he shot to his feet, literally jumping for joy as he hit the next level. “I just completed a class quest… and I leveled! Do you know how long it’s been? I- I…” He spun towards me before charging and practically tackling me in a hug. It was the most un-Emin-like display I could recall ever seeing from the man, which I guess went to show just how big of a deal it was for him.

He held me like that for a good few more seconds before he found himself interrupted by an overly loud cough.

“Hmm, yes. Congratulations are in order. Now, I imagine we’ll want to make the most of this while we can, yes? I believe things may go slightly faster if you have it within you to unhand my daughter.” Barb shot a pointed look at the researcher still clinging to me.

Seeming to suddenly remember himself, Emin sprung away from me as if burned. “I, uh. Sorry about that. But thanks. For bringing me, I mean.”

I waved the thanks away. “Don’t mention it. Now why don’t you tell me a little about whatever mushroom just helped you level while we collect some samples, yeah?”

Apparently thinking that to be a merry idea, he bobbed his head up and down animatedly, and we all got to work.

Herbalism has reached level 6!

Herbalism has reached level 7!

Mining has reached level 7!

Mining has reached level 8!

For the better part of an hour, all six of us scoured the room, extracting every bit of wealth we possibly could. The bulk of what we grabbed was plant life, the uses for which I wasn’t quite certain of, but which Emin assured us all would sell very well.

As I was the only one sporting a pickaxe, I also spent some time on the various metal veins alongside Jason who didn’t need any tools to smash the rocks in question. I got a notification about the ore I mined being downgraded in quality and quantity due to my low mining skill, but I kept on regardless, even finding a handful of dark gems that looked like they might be valuable.

Considering the dungeon wasn’t instanced, every moment we took up was time that the next group was waiting on us, so I didn’t manage to empty out the veins. Still, I got a solid portion of a few different ore types, all of which appeared to have specks and streaks of black running through them.

At Kex’s suggestion, we collected some water and soil samples as well. According to her, they “tasted fancy,” which I would just have to trust her on. For Barb’s part, he carefully trimmed the leaves off the glassy tree, mumbling something about their potential for tea. Eak went an entirely different route, using his control over the water to score us all some fish.

When we’d had our fill of gathering and Eak had at last recovered his mana, we descended into the lake and walked through the tunnel once more, and with that our run was over.

We used the entrance portal to exit out of the dungeon, a notification hitting me the very moment we did so.

New Dungeon perks have been unlocked!

Curious, I pulled up my settlement interface as the others congratulated one another on a job well done. I sifted through the various perks until I caught sight of two that hadn’t been there before.

Resource Run I

For a single run, empties the dungeon of traps, enemies, and most secrets. All dungeon-related resources will appear more frequently during this run.

Cost: 2500 Settlement Energy for one run

50,000 to unlock this perk permanently, allowing for one free Resource Run per week

This perk is limited to the first floor of the dungeon.

Designated Gatherer I

Allows a party to designate one member as the designated gatherer. This party member is not considered a combatant and will not count against the party’s number when determining experience or rewards. The designated gatherer has all of their skills locked save for their professional skills and is unable to aid in combat in any way. Additionally, the designated gatherer is protected from most forms of harm.

Cost: 10,000 Settlement Energy to permanently unlock this feature for floor one

I grinned at the two new options, having had no idea that such things were possible. Evidently, finding the resource room had helped us in more ways than I’d anticipated.

Done reading, I tuned back into my surroundings, finding that Barb had once again roped Emin into a conversation. With a roll of my eyes, I went over to save him.

That very night, it was time to go. Strictly speaking, we could have stayed the night and left in the morning, but as much as I’d grown accustomed to the furs in my tent, not much could compare to the bed in Suds’ house.

With everything we’d come with and a good bit more besides, Emin and I stood deep within the forest, ready to travel back.

“So? All in all, you had a good trip?” Considering how this entire journey had begun and all the various emotions involved, I was sincerely hoping he was feeling good about the choice he’d made.

Much to my relief, Emin replied with a goofy grin plastered to his face.

“I did,” he admitted. “And thank you.” The carefree and pure smile managed to finally dispel any misgivings I’d had about bringing him here, and I found myself mirroring his expression.

“Good,” I replied. “Then I guess we’ll have to do it again sometime, won’t we?”

I activated my recall gem, and with that, our trip to Emer’Thalis came to an end.