We formed up outside the door to the far-left room on my map…at least, that’s what I thought of it as. We’d see if that held true once we got deeper. Our plan was the same as before. If something worked, we stuck with it…until it didn’t work anymore.

  Bhaarrt shoved the door open, and Shadow slipped inside, invisible as ever. I stepped into the entrance, shielding it, while Blaze hurled a FIRE BALL at the cluster of mobs halfway across the room. Bhaarrt followed with a TAUNT, drawing their attention.

  The Shamen wasted no time. I heard Blaze and Bhaarrt grunt in pain as CURSE spells landed. I already had a HOT ticking away on me, and I knew Ingrid had cast one on her husband too. She didn’t need me telling her how to do her job.

  The Goblins charged. Blaze cast her FIRE SHIELD just before they reached her. Their shrieks echoed off the stone as they slammed against the burning barrier. The stench of scorched leather and singed hair filled the room, sharp and bitter in my nose.

  I glanced at the Shamen. One was clearly SAPed, its movements sluggish and jerky. I cast a CHARM MONSTER on the second. Before I could finish assessing, I saw the telltale stagger—Shadow’s BACKSTAB had landed.

  Ingrid stepped up beside Bhaarrt, gripping her spear with both hands. She drove it deep into a Goblin’s belly. The creature howled before Bhaarrt’s maul turned its skull into pulp and ended its pseudo life. The Goblins all looked the same, stamped from the same dark template.

  Shadow finished the second Shaman with brutal precision…first a slash across its throat with her new dagger, then a hard thrust through its eye. It crumpled. The first was already sprawled lifeless on the ground. I fired a MANA BOLT at the last Goblin just before Bhaarrt crushed it.

  With the mobs down, we dropped our shields and moved into the room. The door clicked shut behind us.

  “Should we be timing these fights?” Ingrid asked, her voice thoughtful. “They feel faster.”

  “This is the third time we’ve handled this exact setup,” Blaze said. “We should be quicker by now.”

  “It might matter,” I told them, wiping sweat from my temple. “But most groups won’t have our level…or, dare I say it, our experience?”

  “Maybe the ones who grind spawns together,” I added. “But they won’t hit our levels for a while.”

  We looted quickly. The mobs had dropped a chest with two potions, 250 Shields total, a Crude Sword, another Shaman Staff, a Crude Leather Cap, and the prize of the haul…a Wrist Band of STRENGTH +2. I didn’t even bother asking. I just handed it straight to Bhaarrt.

  He grinned his tusky grin and slipped it on.

  “Hhhmm…a dagger of BACKSTABing, a Ring of WISDOM, and now a Wristband of STRENGTH,” I mused aloud. “See the pattern?”

  “There’s something for each of us,” Blaze said, nodding. “No repeats. That’s three drops. That’s a pattern. Will, what’s causing it?”

  “I don’t know yet. Could be a lot of things. Let’s see what’s in the room across the hall. If it keeps going, maybe it’ll be something for a caster…Fire or MANA-specific.” I shook my head. “I don’t want to jump to conclusions yet. Need more time. More data.”

  “Will it be before we finish this place?” Blaze asked.

  “I think so. I just don’t know when.”

  “Gotcha. I’ve had hunches I didn’t want to say out loud before. Not all of them were right.”

  “Not all of mine either,” I said with a grin. That broke the tension, and we laughed as we got ready to tackle the next room.

  The room across the hall was another repeat of the same setup. We executed cleanly. This time we dropped them in under a minute from door to finish. The symmetry held…the room was nine by twelve meters, like the inner one across the corridor.

  The loot was modest: two staves, a Poor Ax, two Poor Wood Shields, a Leather Poncho, another INVENTORY BAG, and the usual two potions in the chest. But tucked beside them was something new… a bright green feather. Feather of EGO +2.

  “Looks like you get the next one, Blaze,” I told her, plucking my hat off and sliding the feather in with the others. The green stood out against the black, but +2 EGO wasn’t something I’d pass up.

  “Thought so,” Blaze said. “These drops aren’t random. They’re tailored. Someone…or something…is targeting us.”

  “The only thing I can think of that could do that…” I glanced around at the stone walls, torchlight flickering. “Is the dungeon itself.”

  “You mean it’s aware? Alive?” Ingrid asked.

  “Yeah. We already know it has a soul. Conscious? Alive? Somewhere in between? Maybe we’ll find out.”

  “And when, exactly, do we figure that out?” Shadow asked dryly.

  “That’s the question, isn’t it? We keep pushing forward… maybe we’ll get the answer.”

  Before anyone could respond, a GUILD ping cut through our thoughts.

  [GUILD:] [GUILD MASTER] [Ralph-E Hunter - Beastmaster, has joined the guild. SPONSOR PokerRun]

  [GUILD:] [GUILD] [Guild at maximum membership with 35 members]

  “Hey! Got a guild notice,” Bhaarrt rumbled.

  “Same here,” Shadow said. “Never seen it auto-post before. Just from people.”

  “Guild caps out at 35 until Level 3,” I told them. “We need a thousand more guild experience for that. Then we’ll have 60 slots…more bank space too. I’ll check the rest of the rules once we’re out of here.”

  We talked guild mechanics for a few minutes…treasure tax, experience share, who could spend funds. Shadow didn’t like the fact I held the purse strings, but I promised I hadn’t touched guild money and wouldn’t without a meeting. That settled her down.

  “How much guild experience are we getting?” Ingrid asked me.

  “It’s one percent of everyone’s experience and it gets one percent of the treasure, per guild level for each of them. The same percentage for coins we earn from adventuring. We’re just over five Moons in the GUILD BANK right now.”

  “You mean if I get a hundred Shields, it takes one?” She asked.

  “No, it creates one for the guild. It does the same with experience. That’s clear in the guild rules. You can check the System Guild Rules for guilds up to Level 10 the last I looked. I don’t know how high it has to be to see more.”

  “What do we spend the money on? Or what can we spend it on?” Blaze asked me.

  “I’m guessing anything in the STORE. Or we can give it to someone to buy something.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  It looks like we’ll need a guild meeting to work all this out. We have Guild Chat, so we don’t all have to be at the same place to do it.” I told them. “How about we do it later today or tomorrow? Right now, we need to finish the Dungeon.”

  That much we could all agree on.

  Finally, I steered us back to the task at hand. “If my map’s right, the last two rooms on either side of the center corridor have a three-meter staging area before the actual room. We won’t see what’s inside until someone steps in, and once that door opens…they’re coming for us.”

  Blaze’s eyes lit up. “Idea. We open the door, Shadow slips in, gets behind them. We hold at the choke point with shields. Kill zone. They rush us, she flanks the casters.”

  “Bhaarrt like!” He roared.

  “Then I get to pick my target?” Shadow asked.

  “Anything you can handle alone. The Shamen hang back. We’ll have to push inside once fighters are down.”

  “Works for me,” Ingrid said. “As much of a plan as we ever have in new rooms.”

  “Then let's get it done.” I said.

  We set up. Shadow VANISHed. I opened the door, cast MANA SHIELD across the entrance, and braced as Shadow darted inside and ran over to the far side of the room.

  [Urako Sarutobi:] [PARTY] [4 Orcs, 2 Shamen, Human in a dress.]

  Blaze snorted. “Human in a dress?”

  “Caster. Kill it!” I snapped.

  The fight was brutal. ICE BOLTs slammed into my shield, CURSEs piled onto us, and Blaze’s FIRE BALL tore through Orcs while Shadow BACKSTABbed the caster. Bhaarrt roared, his maul smashing skulls, Ingrid’s HOT keeping us standing. The air stank of burning flesh and iron tang of blood.

  I MANA BALLed the Shamen after Shadow VANISHed again. One of the Shamen got off what looked like a HEAL spell on an Orc. I took another CURSE.

  Blaze had to put her FIRE SHIELD back up, so I dropped a MANA BALL on the Shamen. One went down and the other turned to attack Shadow with their staff.

  I could tell they hit her as she rolled away from the attack. It looked like she rose up enough to spring forward and shoulder roll past the Shaman, slashing their belly on the way.

  Bhaarrt kept busy with his Maul and sometimes striking at an Orc with his shield. It didn’t last long. It was down by the time Shadow could limp back with a fresh cut. They were all down, and we dropped the shields.

  It ended with the Orcs sprawled across the floor, Shadow limping back with a fresh cut to her leg.

  “That was interesting. And even better, we get to do it again.” I told them as I leaned against a wall, recovering.

  “I haven’t seen those casters before in the spawns,” Bhaarrt said. “Nobody said we had different spawns this morning. Are we going to get them tomorrow?”

  “Good chance of it. If not tomorrow, in the next few days. From what I’m feeling here, once we take on the dungeon, we’re out of the nursery and it’s going to get harder real soon. A lot harder.” I told them.

  The monsters were tougher and the rewards were a little better. The coins totaled up to 5 Silver Moons. The biggest amount so far. There was only one staff from the Shamen and no pouches.

  The Orcs gave us two of their axes and a poor wooden shield. But we got two pouches from them. The human mage. He didn’t look like anyone we knew. Skinny, white and short but shaggy, medium brown hair. I doubted he’d weigh over 130 pounds. He had 50 Shields as well, and another Inventory pouch.

  The chest had two of each potion type and another ring. I checked it and it said, Ring of Fire Shield, +2 FIRE SHIELDs. That meant it was like adding two additional MANA points to a FIRE SHIELD.

  It was obviously for Blaze and she grinned wide as she kissed her new Ring of +2 FIRE SHIELD.

  “It lets me assign the two points to anything I can upgrade on the spell. I’m starting with adding one to the damage it takes and one to the damage it does to someone trying to break through it.”

  “What do we do differently in the next room?” I asked them. “We’re using more MANA on each set of rooms. We don’t know how much we’ll have left before the Boss Room.”

  “Boss Room?” Blaze asked. “Isn’t that the final room in the dungeon?”

  “Usually, it’s the final room on a floor and it can be the dungeon, too. It’s going to be the biggest and baddest fight we face.”

  “Then we go to the next floor?”

  “Or we go out. If there’s only one floor, we go out. If there are more floors, we decide if we want to go out and come back, or keep going.”

  Holding up my clipboard and graph paper map, I told them, “I’m starting to get an idea of how big this place is. I can still be wrong. But the rooms up the corridor from here end in a T intersection.”

  “That could be the end of the floor, or they could wrap around more rooms to the floor. We’ll find out after the next room.”

  We talked about options, ate MRE’s and rested.

  “We may be getting to the point where we have to do this after every fight”

  When everyone told me they were ready to go, we got up, crossed the hallway and got ready before the door.

  “Time to rinse and repeat, again,” Shadow said just before she VANISHed and we opened the door. It started out the same as the last room. Shadow went in, our shields went up, and we got behind them.

  Shadow moved behind the casters while the Orcs charged into Blaze’s Fire Shield. They screamed as they ran and screamed louder as they hit her shields and burned.

  We took damage from the Shaman’s CURSEs and healing from Ingrid’s HOTs. I don’t think they’ll ever stop hurting. The only good thing is you don’t have to repair holes in your clothing when they hit you.

  I used CHARM MONSTER on a Shaman and he attacked the other Shaman. Shadow BACKSTABbed the caster who was throwing FIRE BALLs at us. Then she removed the rest of its hit points, as well as its head.

  I had to reinforce my shield to keep it from going down. Blaze’s shield went down and she recreated it almost on the Orcs trying to break through.

  Shadow swapped to hitting the Shaman that wasn’t CHARMed and when it was down. I had the Shaman I CHARMed cast CURSEs on the Orcs.

  Two Orcs were already down and Ingrid stepped up and used her spear to hit the last one that Bhaarrt wasn’t smashing.

  When I could tell the Orcs were almost done, I yelled, “Kill the Shaman!”

  Shadow BACKSTABbed it as Blaze and I shot our BOLTs at it. It went down and stayed down. We dropped our shields and stepped around the Orc bodies as we entered the rest of the room. It was the mirror image of the last one.

  This room added another five Moons to our take and a staff. We collected two axes this time and another shield. Plus, one more pouch. In the chest were two of each potion type and some folded cloth.

  My REVEAL MAGIC said it was a Robe of Concealment. Three times in a 24-hour period you could activate it and you would blend into your surroundings for five minutes if you didn’t move. It blocked all detection types including magic.

  “Nice.” Shadow said, “But who gets it?”

  “Whoever can use it the best? Or do we save it for later?” I replied. The consensus was to save it, so I stored it in my INVENTORY.

  “I wonder if we’re going to get any more drops specifically for each of us, or if that’s over?”

  “Do we rest, or scout ahead?” I asked my party.

  “Let’s see what we have left.” Bhaarrt said. “Then we can judge how much we have to rest or we can keep going.” Ingrid agreed with Bhaarrt.

  “I can keep goin’. I want to see what’s around those corners,” Shadow said.

  “So do I,” Blaze added.

  “It looks like we’re going scouting. I’ll make it unanimous. Shadow, lead the way.” I told them.

  We left the room, turned right to the intersection and traveled another 15 meters to the end. I’d already mapped and measured this part.

  Shadow poked her head around the corner. “It goes down a ways and turns left. Three doors on the left. Nothing on the right.” She turned, looking the other way. “Same to the right. Three doors and a turn to the right.”

  “Do we go left or right?” I asked.

  “Let’s go left again,” she said and disappeared. I measured the corridor, and each section was 10 blocks or 30 meters to the turn. It fit for going around the rooms we’d already been in as well as symmetry.

  [Urako Sarutobi:] [PARTY] [Goes down half the distance to a wall with a picture of a door on it.]

  [Blaze:] [PARTY] [Take a closer look at the door?]

  [William of Brinsford:] [PARTY] [If you think it’s safe, do it.]

  [Urako Sarutobi:] [PARTY] [Doin’ it.]

  [Urako Sarutobi:] [PARTY] [Nothin’ I can find ‘cept paint on the wall. Maybe it’ll be a door someday, but it ain’t one now.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [PARTY] [Come on back and check the other end. I’ll come down and measure this one.]

  [Urako Sarutobi:] [PARTY] [Roger that.]

  Shadow was visible on the PARTY MAP as we passed each other in the hallway. What she hadn’t said was the floor was a dark green. It wasn’t the same as the other hallways. I figured that had to be important, but I didn’t know why.

  It was eight meters from the wall to the painting of the door. I’d just rejoined our party when Shadow reported what was on the other end.

  [Urako Sarutobi:] [PARTY] [This one’s same as the first. Painted door and all.]

  Adding it to my paper map to match the one we were at was almost automatic.

  [William of Brinsford:] [PARTY] [Come on back. We’ll go down to the last door and wait for you.]

  When I tried my DETECT MANA through the door, I got nine points of mana.

  “Shit. I count eight inside. And one that’s either a chest or something else that has MANA. We’ve gone up to another level of things to fight.”

  I have a channel. (John.Malkin.Writer) if you want to ask questions, make suggestions, or just talk about the story, come join it. You can go directly to the channel. It should now be a never expires link. In case it doesn't work, you can always contact me for a current join request.