That first intersection showed no sign of which direction to go. "Maddy! Lacie!"
Her voice echoed, but she got no reply. Eve kept calling for a long minute, then started the ATV back up and went dead ahead.
The next time she yelled, the response came from a trio of Rat-kin Sniveller. Level 1.
"What sort of hellish beast are you?" Eve said.
Eve hesitated, but she readied her bow. When they rushed, yelling about wanting money, she was ready, killing two before they reached her, then kicking the third away and killing it as well. Although she drove about, yelling for Maddy for a bit longer, Eve eventually entered a Training Guild.
With the rules of the dungeon explained, Eve drove deeper, calling for Maddy. She killed more ratkin, eventually leaving the outskirts of their territory and entering that of the goblins, who also seemed generally easy to kill, although their propensity for exploding left her terrified to getting too close.
Running low on fuel, Eve eventually had to rip parts out of the ATV for a makeshift leg to put on the cleanly-healed stump the aliens had made of her missing foot. Fortunately, she'd already gotten arrows and an archery bracer as rewards for entering the dungeon with a bow, killing mobs with a bow she brought in, and one-shotting a creature higher level than herself by shooting it square in the eye.
As long as she was careful, she could handle minor threats. She climbed to level 5 before she saw another crawler, a trio fleeing some sort of buff lizard-people. Eve sent arrows into the backs of the lizards, killing three off before the fleeing crawlers got down some stairs and vanished.
The lizards turned on Eve far too late, as she had a long, open hallway to aim down and was quite willing to risk a The McGib Arrowhead (Only on the menu once a year, the McGib bursts its target into a puree of meat chunks) to kill the biggest one. The arrowhead ended up surviving the hit, something that seemed to happen about half the time.
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She stayed by that stairwell another day, calling for Maddy and Lacie as she killed mobs for experience. With that area emptied twelve hours before floor-close, she spent six hours in a safe-room, reading every detail of everything she'd found so far, then headed down as soon as the six hour head-start period began.
The second level was worse than the first. Once the brindle grubs began to overwhelm the place, her limp was a serious problem. She found herself stuck in the broader passages, mostly not gaining experience as she looked for a way to get kills without wading through a sea of beasts.
She eventually found an open path to a saferoom, where she'd at least be able to get some rest. As she approached, the door opened, two terrified-looking crawelers crept out. Crawler Vernon A, Level 7 Human was six feet tall and gaunt. He held the door open, while the shorter and burlier Crawler Francesco Fabbri, Level 7 Human crept forward, glowing chainsaw rumbling.
The chainsaw gave her pause, but Eve decided to trust them. Just as she opened her mouth to announce herself, a blast of black sludge hit the door hard enough to hurl Vernon away as the door saferoom slammed shut. He scrabbled at the door, but the black goop sealed it.
The source of that goop stepped out, grinning cruelly at Francesco, who was clearly afraid, even as he stood his ground. Crawler Bruno, Level 13. He wore black, SWAT-style body-armor.
Francesco raised the chainsaw, screaming as he ran at Bruno. A laugh and a ball of fire trailing a cloud a soot hurled Francesco flat on his back. A red health-bar appeared over him. Vernon screamed and ran.
Eve wasn't entirely sure when she started moving. By the time she thought, "This man is evil," she already had an arrow nocked and drawn. As flame again formed in Bruno's hand, she loosed. She only realized she'd grabbed her best arrow when his head exploded.
That moment of calm, of surety that this man was evil, vanished in a cloud of mist, and she stumbled back, falling against the wall, sliding down until her butt was on the cold stone floor. Achievements were popping up, this horrible dungeon congratulating her for being a murderer.
The horrible place was forcing this on her. The other two recovered before she did, only getting her to move when the brindle grubs swarmed. As she contemplated what had happened, Eve decided that she had been in the right. In fact, intervening to save the lives of that pair, had been the best possible course she could have chosen.
