The next wave was better and worse. Somehow, they triggered the monsters before reaching the village. None of them had noticed any sort of trap or lookout, but it was impossible to miss a hundred screaming monsters barreling directly at them.

  With the bulk of his battle mech, Copperfield filled the tunnel. A blessing for keeping monsters off of the rest of them, but it forced the others to cram themselves against the wall to get an angle for their guns. A few of the bastards wiggled around the sword-wielding mech, each dispatched cleanly by Ekaterina with either a well-placed staff strike or a fireball to the face at point-blank range.

  Unfortunately, the tight confines left the air filled with ice goblin blood and aetherized argo to the point it overwhelmed his tenuous truce with his nose. They were never running this dungeon again if Heath could help it.

  After a few moments of rest, they continued forward. This time they had to push through a mound of bodies, hacked or blown apart, that blocked the way. Or more accurately, they had to carefully follow in the mech’s footsteps from where the metal armor forced every obstacle to the side just by walking.

  A few hundred yards later, they found yet another goblin village, this one abandoned, all its residents lying dead on the impromptu battlefield. It was an eerie scene, smoldering cookfires and muddy footprints between the stone huts, suggesting a vibrant populace before their team stumbled in.

  Lies. It was well documented that dungeons reset each time, and the monsters within might be smart, but they weren’t sapient, not like people. He just had to remind himself of that every time he saw an abandoned toy. The half-eaten carcasses helped.

  Heath checked his HUD readout. They had just over half their allocated delve slot left.

  “Ten minutes for looting if we want to push farther.”

  “Ahem. I believe I can help.” Ekaterina held up her staff, pointing to a small crystal halfway down the length that Heath had never noticed before. It was dull quartz to his eyes but he nodded anyway.

  With some concentration and mumbling on Ekaterina’s part, the crystal began to glow. Then a pulse of light spread out around them, the crystal going inert once more.

  “There’s something on the ceiling, a plant of some sort in a crevice in that direction, and something else over in the well.”

  Heath’s jaw dropped. “You have a loot detector? Why haven’t we been using it this whole time?”

  The Wizard turned her back as she walked towards the well, Heath following. “It only works in confined spaces, it would have been useless in the Forest. Not to mention most of the plants there had some amount of argo empowering them, just from being in the dungeon. I would not shirk my duty to a delving team in the dungeon.”

  The tone in her voice was colder than the air outside, and Heath realized he may have spoken too soon. “I apologize, I didn’t mean to imply you would. I was just excited. So what’s in the well?”

  “I do not know.”

  They walked in silence after that until they reached the center of the village, and the well in question. It was unimpressive, a mound of crumbling stones with a bucket that couldn’t possibly hold any water.

  Both of the classers peered over the edge, angling lights down into the depths.

  “There!” Ekaterina shouted, anger forgotten for the moment it seemed.

  Heath looked where she was pointing, and his light glinted off a shifting mass of metal. It throbbed, like a beating heart, the mass of copper suctioned onto the side of the well three yards down.

  He looked at Ekaterina, then himself, then back to the wizard. “I don’t suppose you can float it out?”

  Her flat look was an answer on its own. Heath sighed and shrugged his rope off from where it was coiled around his torso like a shash. With quick movements – [Knots] showing its eternal worth– he had an anchor point selected on the sturdiest building nearby, and a belay system hooked into his coat’s built-in harness.

  The others had returned at this point, Jenny Mae gently carrying a plant cupped between her hands, while Copperfield shrugged and pointed at the ceiling of the cavern, five yards above their heads and not reachable with any of their skills.

  “Oh, Emerald. Any chance you can [Mage Hand] the…whatever-it-is?”

  They looked over and stared for a moment, a blue hand appearing to grip their prize. After half a minute they leaned back and shrugged. “Nah. Too stuck to the side. Hand doesn’t give me that much force.”

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  Heath had guessed as much, and hadn’t stopped securing himself while he spoke. He did some experimental tugs and then added a secondary anchor to Copperfield’s mech, just in case the house gave in to its flimsy nature and collapsed on him.

  With no other ways to stall, he clambered over the edge, and started lowering himself into the well, as slowly as he could.

  The air within was bitter. Colder than the rest of the dungeon, colder than the arctic winds outside. Magic bullshit he didn’t want to deal with when it felt like his eyes were going to freeze over. And it was gross, he had to struggle to find purchase for his boots in the slippery residue covering everything, though that might be normal for wells.

  Caution gave way to practicality and he was in front of his target in a few moments. His initial impressions didn’t lessen at all when he got up close. An organ made of living copper, embedded in the slime-covered stone of the wall with questing tendrils.

  Heath realized he had no idea how to remove it, so he did the only thing he could really, with the air attempting to freeze him to death since the goblins above hadn’t managed.

  He grabbed the thing and pulled. There was just enough give to reinforce his impression of an organ, squishing slightly in his hand, even if there was more resistance than what he thought a regular liver or kidney would have.

  It remained resolutely stuck.

  This time, he planted his feet on the wall as well as he could, leaned back in the narrow space so his shoulders could press against the far wall, and pulled again. The extra leverage was enough, and with a faint ‘pop, the mass of tendrils and copper magic was his.

  A vision of the tendrils latching onto his face caused his whole body to shiver, but nothing happened.

  “Pull me up!” he shouted.

  The rest of the team obliged, and in under a minute he was back in the relatively warmer air of the cave, shivering so much he felt his teeth clack together. He shoved his treasure into the disappointingly empty bag, next to the plant.

  His HUD was now showing just two hours remaining in their delve.

  “I think we c-c-can do one m-m-more,” he said.

  The rest of the team agreed and they formed back up. The chattering that heralded enemies came earlier this time, while they were still well away from the cavern. Heath slowed down and tapped the rest of the group to turn around.

  “Should we turn back now? We have the plant at least, and a couple of the argo bits from the first wave.”

  “Pssh,” Copperfield scoffed. “Less than a gram total. And these little fucks can’t even get to me. I say we keep going.”

  “The increased rewards will only exist this once, in an otherwise underwhelming dungeon. I believe we should continue.” Ekaterina made a compelling argument while doing her best to avoid looking like she agreed with Copperfield.

  Jenny Mae looked conflicted for a moment but ultimately nodded in agreement.

  “Your call kid.” Emerald said.

  “I’m not a kid, and we go forward. But keep the defensive formation, if we have to, we can retreat.”

  They did just that. Inching their way into the next cavern.

  “Fuck.” Copperfield’s voice was distorted by the mech, but they could all hear the curse clear as day, and they could all agree with it.

  If what they’d fought so far were goblin villages, what confronted them now was a town, or perhaps a small city. Worse, Heath could see bigger monsters lurking about, hobgoblins, according to the dungeon guide.

  “Okay, let’s ease back in and –”

  A screech cut him off, as every goblin in sight turned to look at the cave entrance. The goblins charged.

  “Defensive formation, retreat back to the tunnel,” Heath called.

  The practice sessions were working, as everyone followed instructions, backing up to keep their unarmored members from being swarmed.

  Then the first goblin arrived. A blur of motion and it fell to the ground in two parts, cleaved in half by Copperfield’s sword. They were still weak, that was the good news. The only good news.

  In only a moment, more had slipped back, despite their Swashbuckler’s best efforts. Heath was wildly aiming at anything that got too close. Leaving more for Coppefield to handle alone, leading to even more of them to slip through the gaps.

  “Shit, shit, shit,” he hissed to himself.

  With each step back towards the exit, they were one moment closer to being overrun.

  “Ekaterina! Give us something big.”

  Their Wizard didn’t waste time with a response, and started charging a spell. The crystal on her staff changed to its black form and she thrust it forward, towards the writhing wall of monster flesh.

  A boom thundered through the cave, shaking dust and rocks from the wall and ceiling as the center of the goblins exploded. At the same time, Jenny Mae and Copperfield cleared the ones in the midst of their formation.

  Heath slammed his [Shield] skill, spending half his mana to make it sturdy enough. “Run!” he called.

  No one on the team needed to be told twice. Copperfield remained at the rear, and the rest turned their fighting retreat into a flight to the dungeon entrance.

  Heath could feel every blow on his shield. It wasn’t painful, but each thump echoed in his head. Which meant he felt the moment, between panting breaths, when the shield failed.

  “Faster.”

  Everyone found another mote of rapidly draining stamina they could push towards the sprint.

  Their second chamber, where Heath had gone exploring in the well, appeared before them. This time there was no cautious entrance, they bolted straight out and across in the shortest distance possible. Behind them, with Jenny Mae’s [Perception Aura] still active, he could feel the goblins catching up.

  They were only just into the next tunnel when Heath heard the change in the noise. He turned to see slavering goblins, bounding across the cavern, their screaming cries echoing all around. Once they were a few yards into the tunnel, Heath created another [Shield].

  It was weaker, and it broke faster. Now the panic was setting in. They were almost there. Just another sprint. They passed through the hallway filled with their first victims, already rotting, far faster than nature should allow.

  They passed through the first cavern, also littered with corpses, but Heath could tell they wouldn’t make it. All of them were flagging. Heath had enough mana for one more good [Shield], but he would be useless afterwards.

  With a cry of frustration, Ekaterina dropped back and turned around. He hadn’t even noticed when the crystal on her staff turned red. She must have prepared the spell while she ran, because there was no delay before a lance of fire rocketed down the passageway. Sizzling was added to the screams, as steam puffed out from the frozen walls.

  “Go, go!” Heath shouted at himself and the rest of the crew, who had slowed down at the display.

  They kept going. It was so close, they just had to make it. Without much else to contribute, Heath put the last dregs of his mana into a final [Shield]. It was only enough to slow the remaining goblins for a heartbeat, with how little mana he could put into the skill and remain upright.

  It was enough. They exited the dungeon at a full sprint, the monitor jumping to the side to avoid being flattened in their stampede.

  Heath skidded to a halt and almost collapsed, his hands on his knees as he heaved for breath. The rest of his team was in a similar state, spread around the monitor. They were safe.