Chapter 122

The last few days had fallen into a similar routine.

In the daytime, I watched the adventurous stomping through the dungeon and then, during the night, did some minimal experimentation. It was boring as hell, but I forced myself every night to ensure the planned experiments were performed on the results noted.

I was now making limited headway in some areas, especially towards the planned special minion for the tenth floor. Bats were now becoming an option that I could use in the future, but for the moment, I had no real envisioned idea of how to use them. The ninth floor was a different story as I already had a plan for it, and I was working towards it. I was pretty sure I had the resources to make it happen, but I was still concerned about the mana I possessed and could regenerate. More and more adventurers were pushing down into the sixth floor, and my reserves were being taxed daily.

The majority was still avoiding the seventh and eighth floors, but the most daring were risking beach floors, but fewer than before as the casualties mounted, and those daring ones who were not ready never left the floors.

The day was progressing, and nothing really interesting had happened. Sure, a few teams came through, but they stayed above the fifth. I suspected that there would be another, maybe two or three teams today before they wrapped up, as the sun would be setting them. My focus was up in the rafters, looking down at the doors with Larry, wondering who the next team would be.

After a few moments, the doors opened, and I got the first surprise of the day.

A new team entered the room, and they were all extremely short with great big beards except for one. I was a bit excited because it looked like I had my first dwarf party. Well, that's what they look like to me, and very stereotypical of them in their appearance.

Short. Check. Well armoured. Check. Beards. Check apart from one.

It might be wrong of me, but I'm calling them dwarfs.

As the group filed in and looked around the entrance room, I took the opportunity to look at them with my Mana Sight. They lit up with numerous items and enchantments, mainly across their armour and shields. This was an experienced and quite well-funded team, it looked like. I suspected they were silver, at least maybe higher, and this got me excited a bit to see how a higher-grade team would operate within my Dungeon.

They quickly spotted Larry, and he was watching them as they discussed what, if anything, they were going to do with him. He sensed they were deciding on a course of action and was ready to bolt if needed. I looked over the team again and noticed that there was not a single Archer amongst them or a ranged weapon as far as I could see. Only the unbearded one was unarmed, carrying a massive dimensional storage bag covered in various tools and blades.

Hammers seemed to be their weapon of choice, apart from one who carried an axe. Each was wearing a set of what looked like scale mail, and most carried shields. These Shields were thick and sturdy, with brass covers over a thick wooden layer or bound by a band of iron.

I would have thought that they would have come dressed in plate, but as I watched them move around, I realised that the scale mail was a better choice as I gave them far more range of motion. This group seemed to have found a balance between protection and mobility.

I listened to their conversation as they wandered around. Most of them seemed to be looking at Larry, wondering what they should do about him. The unbearded one was the only one not paying attention, and he searched every cupboard in the room. He found the bottle of poisoned wine. He pulled out a crystal from one of his pockets, and it lit up a sickly green. He quickly put the bottle back.

The group ignored Larry, as he was not making any threatening moves, and started to move into the Dungeon.

The next hour was boring as they slowly made their way through the first and second floors. They were not rushing and were taking their time studying different aspects of my Dungeon as they went forward. The tin vein located on the first floor had drawn some attention, and there was a brief discussion on mining it, but they decided to leave it for another day.

The second floor did cause some consternation as they were forced to wade through the water, which was far deeper on them than anyone else who had voted in my Dungeon so far.

It wasn't until they were about halfway through the second floor that I realised that two of them were actually females of the dwarven species. I was quite shocked by this, as they, too, were bearded, broad, and squat. Their arms seemed as muscular as the males', and if I had not heard a passing comment, I would not have realised in the first place that they were females.

The things you learn.

One of them seemed not to be a rogue or a thief but some form of engineer. It was one of the females, and she was very interested in the traps I had created on these floors. She commented on their simplicity but the soundness of the design. I was not insulted by this as they were, in truth, everything she said.

They did not seem too impressed with the first two floors, but the thirds were far more interesting to them. The boys quickly took him down, and the clean-shaven dwarf worked on their bodies, harvesting everything he could. Heavy hammers proved to be brutally effective in crushing the boar's skulls. The three dwarfs with shields proved very effective at meeting and holding a boar charge, allowing them to counter-attack with one or two quick strikes, killing my minion.

The clean-shaven dwarf seemed to be interested in everything and was trying to take everything that wasn't nailed down. No, that wasn't right. I even spotted him attempting to take things nailed down on several occasions. One of the female dwarfs regularly yelled at him about his preoccupation with acquiring everything he could. Such terms as “thief”, “sticky fingers”, “no moral compass”, and “downright skullduggery” were some of the nicer things she said about him.

When it came to the third-floor guardian, I was most upset with how easily they dispatched it. My boar charged them. One of the shield bearers stepped forward, triggering a skill and glowing to meet it. The impact was loud, but the dwarf didn't move. This allowed another one to step in with his hammer glowing and deliver a massive blow to the guardian's head, shattering his skull and killing it instantly.

They rested here as the body was stripped.

The spiders on the fourth floor proved to be no match for them, and they quickly steamrollered through the numbers that tried to swarm them. They did not seem interested in the webbing around them and were just moving through the floor. All the rewards were collected, but nothing else was taken. I warned Queen about what was coming, and she prepared herself.

It did not help. She fought and used all her tricks, but she was no match for them, and she fell.

The fifth floor was a bit different. Their engineer was having a great time figuring out my traps. They all seemed able to spot the traps in the ground with no problems and avoided them. Likewise, the worm's attempt at ambush proved ineffective as they were spotted well before they could jump out of the ground. The worm stick hides proved to be slightly more effective against the hammers that were in use. Their shields also took more damage from the worm's attacks. But like the floors above them, they marched on, beating down each of my minions as they were revealed to them.

The guardian put up a bit of a fight but was quickly beaten down as the others were. Sure, it took longer, but it seemed to be inevitable as they were able to break its charges as well. Its hardening ability brought it a bit longer, but it, too, fell.

They had gathered in the stairwell room, ready to descend to the sixth floor, and I had warned Krag, who was getting ready for a good fight. I think he was going to get through the sixth to him…

Why was Larry running down the stairs?

I shifted my attention back to the entrance room as the doors exploded in from something impacting them.

The familiar red alert over a void-corrupted creature's raid appeared.

“Fuck!”

## ## ## ## ##

“What was that?” Gornax asked, looking up the stairs; a strange sound reverberated down. Then, it seemed like the Dungeon shuddered. It was subtle, but they sensed it.

“It sounded like wood smashing, " Stonus said. The whole group had heard that and was now looking up or at the stairs. “Maybe the doors upstairs?”

“Aye. I think you are right best…” Thrum began speaking. Suddenly, the local creature called a sharoon and what looked like a bright pink Pixie came running/flying down the stairs. They did not even stop and passed the surprised Dwavern group standing there.

“That is not a good sign.” Snortax jumped into a defensive position, ready to be attacked by whatever was coming behind them. The others quickly matched him.

“Something is happening…” Thrum started to say as they suddenly heard something else coming down the stairs. “Shave me beard! We hold here, but be ready to pull back into the floor again if we must.”

Something blurred down the stairs and collided with the wall of Shields that they had set up to protect themselves. Snortax, Gornax and Stonus were soon engaged and fighting desperately. Thrum managed to get a look at it, and the blood in his veins turned to ice.

“Fearfiend! Brace for psychic attacks!” Thrum warned his teammates. It was moving fast, but he could see it now, and what he saw was something wrong even beyond this monster's normal sight. The air around them suddenly seemed to thicken and then contract as fear surged from within.

“Oh! Benevolent Ilinia protect us from this fear.” Val’nira countered the fear they were feeling with a benediction to her goddess. The fear that we're starting to build was suddenly pushed back but not completely gone.

“Hold it while I cast my runes!” Thrum ordered the fighters as he opened his palm. It was a stone engraved with a rune of his people, which glowed with magical energy. He focused triggering the spell within it and the rune appeared in the air with a faint red glow. He focused on the monster that was attacking them and the room changed into a ball of red energy that shot out across the room and hit the monster. Where it collided with it the monster suddenly exploded into flame.

“[Firebolt] Was not as effective as I wanted be ready for more.”

The fighters didn't bother to answer as they were too busy, and they were all triggering their own skills and abilities right now, trying to stay alive. Thrum was half paying attention to the fight as he dug out more runes from a pouch on his belt, ready to cast. He counted at least eight skills that had been triggered in the fight already, and they barely held the line.

The Fearfiend was lashing out with large talons on its hands, slashing through the shields and damaging them. Parts of them were falling free and onto the ground, and it was not going to be long before someone was going to get injured badly.

Snortax triggered a [Multi-Thrust] as his arm blurred as he struck at the monster. It dodged one of his attacks, but the second made contact, slashing into its hide. The axes enchanted edge cut into it. Purple ichor oozed from the wound. It flashed back, catching him on the shoulder and ripping into his armour. His shoulders had plate sections on top of the scale mail they were all wearing, but this did not really protect him as blood erupted from the strike as the monster's talons raked upwards.

He fell back cursing, and the other two fighters pressed in to protect him. Val’nira Grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and pulled him back so she could heal him. Stonus blocked an attack with his shield, but the Fearfiend stabbed with its talons instead of swiping at him. His shield stopped them but not entirely so that he could punch through and pierce his armour on the arm behind the shield. He grunted in pain but held his ground, hitting back with his hammer on the arm that had penetrated his shield. This time, the monster reeled back in pain.

Thrum’s vision began spinning as he quickly unleashed three runes. The backlash of the mana depletion forced him to his knees. Thankfully, the three spells he cast hit their target, and the monster was pushed back by the three separate elemental attacks. The confined space they were fighting in was working to their advantage.

Val’nira had cast a healing spell on Snortax that stabilised him, and she pushed him back into the fight. As soon as he engaged, she pulled Stonus out to heal him. To do what needed to be done, Thrum trusted his team as they had spent decades travelling together and fought more battles than he cared to remember.

He got back up, fighting back the effects of mana depletion. He was watching a fight and quickly realised that they were losing. The fiend was now pushing them back slowly, step by step, but they were giving ground.

“Fall back to the doorway. We will use it as a chokepoint.” He ordered. Tyrax who was in it quickly pulled back as they began to reposition themselves. The fighters pulled back in a staged retreat to the better defensive position. The fiend started to follow them but then suddenly stopped and ran down the stairs further into the Dungeon.

“By the ancestors, what is happening?” Gornax exclaimed.

“I know not, but we're getting out of here.” Thrum knew there were times that retreat was the smartest thing to do.