If anyone were to tell Larec that this little expedition would end with them all finding a dungeon, she would be hard pressed to take them seriously, things like that don’t happen to adventurers, whether experienced scouts or in a party with 7 other desperate idiots.

Yet, for some reason, through some bizarre mishmash of luck, they did find a dungeon.

The Deidrin, resting with the rest of the group outside of the doors to the likely last room of the dungeon where the boss would reside, prayed for the second time that day.

‘Shaikanoi, our father of the deep seas, I thank you for gifting this servant the luck she doesn’t deserve’ She began, her chant mental as to not offend or distract the others with their own preparations ‘I will labor to further spread your word, to valiantly spill blood in your name and to return to the embrace of your watery realm with my swordstaff in hand and honor to my name. I shall always strive to one day to sit with my ancestors, in your halls of blood and valor’

Finishing, she reopened her eyes to find the rest of their merry little band mostly done with their own things as well.

Amelia was preparing her quivers and likely taking out some of her special arrows for the fight ahead, same with Anh and his own crossbow bolts.

Tammy had put away her medical supplies, likely finished checking them all.

Ren was still fidgeting with his potions, finishing the brewing of whatever he could replace from his own expenditure, helped by the fact that before they rested, Mark found a small chest hidden through a small crack in the wall which contained a good bounty of herbs and coin.

Hans was resting, his large weapon hanging on his shoulder.

Mark was still sharpening the blade of his sword, same as Larec would have to if her weapon weren’t enchanted and always held an edge by itself.

A costly albeit worthwhile investment in her eyes.

Akol was meditating, his strange wand was by his side as he concentrates on regaining as much mana as possible after rebuffing everyone again just in case.

Perhaps it was a bit overly cautious for them to prepare as such for the upcoming fight as most dungeon’s first bosses are only around threat rank 3-5.

But there’s a reason that the phrase “Overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer” exists.

No one wanted to be known as the idiot who drunkenly yells his own name, charging unarmed into den full of drakes wearing only his rainbow-colored undies whilst slathered head to toe in honey in order to fist fight a cousin of the infamous dragons.

“I’m finished” Akol called out, the spirit opening his eyes as he finished his meditation “Does anyone else need more time to prepare?” He asked the rest of the delvers.

A quick glance around the room and Larec could only see the other shake their heads, same as her “I think we’re all done here” Larec answered.

“Well, then I suppose it’s time we finish up this floor and see if there’s a second” Mark spoke up as everyone got up and in a ready formation walked over to the large stone doors that would lead them to the final room marked by its ornate carvings and strange symbols lining it.

Opening the door, Larec and the others managed a small peak into the room before they enter.

It was large, larger than any other so far in the dungeon, squarish and at the very least 100ft wide with the ceiling covered with bioluminescent fungi reaching far above, about 30ft.

Yet curiously, there were no large creatures or mechanical golem in sight, no boss monster, puzzle nor anything moving.

Except for the large pool of water in the middle and in the four corners of the room.

“Where’s ze boss?” Ren asked as he lowered his crossbow “Or is zis not ze final room?”

Mark and Akol both shook their heads, the former speaking up “No this is definitely a boss room, and I’ll bet my entire savings that the boss is hiding in the bodies of water which probably connects with one another”

The latter added “And besides, there’s never been a dungeon that just creates empty rooms without nothing in it, every room has a purpose no matter how small”

Humming, Larec stared at the body of water at the middle of the room, watching the faint ripples on the surface that radiates from its center every few seconds despite no wind nor anything hitting it “It’s in the center pool” She calmly stated.

Mark nodded “Good spot, the dungeon ought to add some water dripping from above if it wants to hide where it’s boss hides” He exclaimed “But it’s deep enough to still conceal it and my skill’s not working yet”

“So, what do we do here?” Hans asked, unsure about the situation.

“What else? We move in and take it out” Akol gave the straightforward answer.

Moving in a slightly staggered formation, the party moved forward, keeping their eyes on the central body of water.

As soon as they stepped a bit into the room, suddenly, a faint glow emanated from the only other door in the room, it was similar to that of the door from which they entered through, stone with weird symbols and carvings on it but peculiarly, there was a circular indent in the middle of it, faintly luminescent with only a quarter of it filled out with a glowing gem in it.

“Well, this isn’t good” Akol commented pointing out a few spots where one could see a faint glow on the walls opposite of the doors and one in the middle of the ceiling “If I’m correct then those things are the keys used to open the door to go further” The nature demon mused as the pool in the middle bubbled as a large shadow appeared underneath the water’s surface “Which means that this isn’t a fight to defeat the boss”

A torrent of water rained down as a large serpentine head with aquatic frills emerged from the pool “It’s to collect the keys and get out before the boss kills us…” Akol finished with a grimace.

The creature in front of them was massive, easily over 50ft long and 4ft wide even partially in the water as far as Larec can tell as sharp intelligent red eyes bore down of them from the head that reached the ceiling as the blue body with beautiful scale patterns made of blue, white and red slithered out from the pool with surprisingly fluidity and speed.

“It’s… t-threat rank 27” Mark muttered from the side with a hint of fear in his voice.

Larec’s expression hardened, her grip on her swordstaff tightening as she stared down the hulking serpent in front of her ‘This is a dangerous but worthy foe… I did not expect to enter the halls of blood today but, if I do, it will be without complaints’ Her maw split into a savage grin as the monster in front of her loomed over her and her companions.

It seemed to open its mouth either to roar, lunge, bite or perhaps initiate a breathe weapon of some sort but whatever it is never materialized as a massive crossbow bolt nearly took one of its eyes out if it did not barely dodge out of the way at the last second.

Larec heard Anh cursed loudly in his native language behind her but paid no attention as the attack seemed to snap everyone out of whatever state they were in, and the battle was joined.

Immediately, the serpent flares its frills out and breathed out a haze of poisonous smoke that filled spread out in a cone in front of it only to be blown back into its face by a strong gust of wind, courtesy of the nature demon’s magics.

Everyone immediately took the opportunity to spread out as the ginormous serpent shook its head and dispersed the cloud of poison, clearing its sight, its eyes now firmly squared on Larec, the only one of the adventurers who did not move at all.

She stayed silent, defiantly staring at it, daring it to attack her, channeling a bit of blood magic to force it to look at her and not the others.

It obliged and in half a second, Larec found herself jumping back to avoid being devoured by the monster ‘It’s fast’ She thought ‘And powerful as well’ And added as her eyes glanced down to the gouges on the stone floor caused by the missed bite.

Before the serpent can recover, it was forced to close its right eye, letting a flaming arrow deflect from its armored eyelids before exploding away from it before rearing back in pain as Hans came at it from the same angle at the same time, clobbering the monster’s head upward with a wide swing from his weapon, glowing with dark light from an aura-based enchantment.

The Lycan let the momentum carry him to attempt another similar swing, but the boss monster reared its head back to dodge and swiped him away with a quick whip of its tail that he barely caught with the haft.

It was as good an opportunity as any and Larec managed a good slash at the serpent’s tail though the tough scales seem to be protecting it well ‘And hard to kill’ A stab attempt was then thwarted when the creature forced her to dodge as it slammed its tail at where she was at and then forced Mark to back off or lose everything above his waist.

“Close your eyes!” Larec did so yet the bright flash from one of Ren’s flashbombs still partially went through her eyelids, unfortunately so too did the boss monster as it didn’t seem too bothered by the miniature sun that was created.

Larec came at it again, catching it in the side with a thrust as it dodged one of Akol’s amber spears, finally drawing blood against the monster.

She jumped over the retaliatory tail strike but had to hold her breathe as the serpent spat out a cloud of poison that was focused on her and Ren behind her.

Judging by the coughing from behind, the alchemist didn’t have as good of a reaction time as she did.

Hans came at the monster again, roaring as he stabbed at the boss monster’s side, exactly where Larec did with the spiked tip of his Goedendag, tearing out a good-sized wound. The second amber spear also struck but did little to no damage to the boss and Anh’s follow up crossbow bolt narrowly missed by a few centimeters as Amelia’s second attempt of a blinding shot struck the side of the head, doing not much.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Larec turned around to the poisoned Ren, trusting her group to buy her some time as she shoved an antidote potion into the Varmenian’s mouth.

A masculine scream got her attention just in time to witness mark getting launched into a wall.

The sickening crunch that followed was deafening as he crumbled to the floor “Buy me some time!” Tammy shouted as she sprinted towards the downed human.

Larec obliged and charged into the fray, channeling the well-known yet looked down upon blood magic of her people into her blade, her first slash into the body caused a small scratch yet still drawing blood, the second created a minor yet bleeding wound, the third after deflecting the serpent’s tail caused a rapidly bleeding gash as her strikes grew in power with the amount of blood spilled.

She wasn’t the only one doing her best as Akol seemed both enraged and yet more focused and professional than he ever did, releasing a seemingly unending barrage of spells both to damage and bind the boss monster as the healer raced to save his life.

Amelia gave up on trying for the eyes for now and instead whipped out her armor piercing arrows, set up a rhythm and started to try her best to turn the serpent into a pincushion.

Hans let out a large howl as he got up from being on the ground, the Lycan charged, his weapon now laced with electricity as it struck at the jaw of the serpent, breaking off one of its many fangs with a loud CRACK! Reminiscent of thunderous lightning.

Finally, the boss sprouted a horn as Anh got into position and shot it dead center in the head.

None of it was enough to kill the threat rank 27 monster, otherwise it wouldn’t be threat rank 27 but they seemed to deal enough damage to force it off as with another breathe weapon attack of poisonous gas forcing them all away, it was gone, retreating into the murky water as Akol blew the gas away with a gust of strong winds.

“Scheisse! If that thing has any sort of regeneration, it can just fall back when hurt and we can’t kill it!” Hans cursed as his eyes started to dart from one body of water to the next “We need those keys around the room to move on or retreat!”

“Tôi ch-I just need one… hit in the eye!” Anh protested “And it’s die!” Almost in his native tongue as he reloads his oversized crossbow.

Larec shook her head “No, it’s fast enough and reactive enough to dodge your bolts” Larec explained “It is tempting, to chase your prey to the death but as hunters, we have a duty to stay alive, to pass on our knowledge, to feed out peoples and to know when it is wise to call off a hunt against an enemy we’re not prepared for”

Anh stood still for a second, his head tilting in thought as he likely didn’t understand even half of the words from her, but he nodded sheepishly, understanding what she was going for.

Larec turned to see Mark getting back up, gritting his teeth as Tammy reset his dislocated shoulder on the spot with help from some sort of healing magic

“I got the one on the ceiling!” Akol shouted as he spiritual looking insect wings suddenly sprouted on his back, some sort of nature magic or demon magic if Larec has to guess “Give me a moment!”

As he said that and reached the key, a highly pressurized stream of water nearly hits him dead on, only stopping at the last second as the nature demon shielded him with a shield of orange amber which was cracking after the stream stopped “This putain has water magic as well! I’m not good at counterspelling so whatever you do dodge or block or deflect it!” Akol shouted as he quickly secured the first key by pulling it out with the help of conjured roots on the ceiling.

“Got it!” Larec and many other affirmed as they rush for the other keys with Hans smashing the next key out of its embedded place in the wall with his Goedendag “Got the second” He called out.

The boss raised its head out of a different body of water near Hans and launched a barrage of water bullets at the Lycan who hit the ground and let most of them pass over him but a few tagged him, mostly in his armored chest but judging from his pained grunts, he was hurting.

It then snapped around and opened its mouth and unleashed another pressurized stream of water at Larec, forcing her to roll out of the way as it created a deep gouge in the wall and floor where she was just standing.

An arrow and crossbow bolt only hit stone as the boss quickly retreated back into its water hole but the quick ambush was enough for the group to know that some of the damage that they did to it was no longer there ‘And it regenerates as well, I’d say this is a bit much for a first floor boss but I’ll let the two brothers bicker about that if we all survive’

Before they can recover much, it popped its head through a different water hole, sending water bullets at Larec and Tammy with the former dodging and deflecting the magic to the best of her ability whilst the latter hunkered down and hid behind her shield which held up well even when the boss targeted her with a larger spear of water and then another.

It however, stayed out of its hidey hole a bit too long as Mark, wanting revenge threw his spear, hitting the serpent neck faster than the eye could track before disappearing and reappearing at the human’s hand “Merde, I was going for the eye or mouth” He cursed as the serpent hissed in pain before fleeing below the surface of the water, getting another one of Amelia’s armor piercing arrows for its troubles.

“And before you ask, the spear’s only enchanted to do that once per day” He added.

‘A useful albeit limited hidden card’ Larec mused as she let out a labored breath, hand over her side where a water bullet thankfully didn’t penetrate her armor though it still stung.

Hans groaned as he got up “We need one more key! Where’s the next one?”

“A second!” Anh shouted as he aimed his oversized crossbow at a particular crystal key halfway up the wall, hitting it perfectly at the side to crack the stone near it, dropping the key to the floor “Blunt bolts are gr-g-good at attacking armor or brittle things” He explained.

As he finish his sentence, the easterner barely avoid getting skewered in the head by a water spear by throwing himself at the ground and Ren managed a bomb throw that exploded on the side of the boss monster’s head before it could do anything else, forcing it to resubmerge itself.

“Let’s go! I want to get out of this hellhole of a boss room!” Mark shouted as he picked Anh up and the last key and everyone else sprinted to the door to the core or the next floor.

Then, the boss emerged again, still wounded as it hadn’t had enough time to regenerate to breathe poison onto the group as they were near the door, only a quick gust of wind from Akol saved them all from being paralyzed as dozens of spirals of water bullets rise out of the water to form by the side of the serpent’s head.

Those went to intercept Ren, Akol, Anh and Amelia before they could try to interrupt through ranged attacks whilst the hidden spears of waters still hidden below the surface of the water emerged to quickly sneak attack the rest of the group, forcing them all to scatter before the boss slithered back to face them in a melee.

Before it could do that, Larec let in a breath as she focuses on channeling all the blood that has been spilled on the ground this day, some of it her own and sent it all onto the serpent.

It paused, confused as its body refused to move as she struggled and strained herself to hold such a powerful creature back for as long as possible as her bloodshot, bleeding eyes bored into that of the serpent.

She only held it back for all of 4 seconds, a lifetime in a fight.

A legion of brambles, thorns and roots emerged to tangle around the exposed boss monster before it could break free from the blood hex, entangling it and letting Hans bat its head upwards with a powerful, overhead swing charged with roaring electricity.

Tammy finally got into melee as she swung the spiked head of her warhammer between a few scales where what seems to be an important muscle or nerve ending might be as the serpent screamed out in agonizing pain from that, something it never did before.

The medic widened the wound before pulling back to allow Mark to ram his spear right into the exposed wound, the human twisted his spear inside before savagely pulling it out through the side, his spear glowing white with a skill, creating a large, gaping wound that bled heavily.

Not that the boss monster was defenseless during all of that, Tammy had to block a tail going for Mark’s rib and then withstand the pressurized stream of water, barely deflecting it by angling her shield and even then, it created a huge gouge in her shield.

Hans nearly lost his head from a retaliatory bite if he didn’t duck in time and Mark had to fall back as the serpent resumed casting its water magic.

“Get the keys! I’ll hold it off” Larec didn’t wait for an answer.

She charged in as her ally fell back, deflecting a water spear with a twirl of her swordstaff, dodging a barrage of water bullets and being saved by a surprise water spear only thanks to Anh’s marksmanship as she stabbed deeply into the wound Tammy and Mark created, the copious amounts of blood pouring out of the serpent powering her as she engaged with a whirling dance of death with the first floor boss.

Slash, dodge, deflect, stab, slash, slash, spin around to dodge, dodge, slash and so it went as she got stronger, faster and more enduring as the boss bled.

But there are limits and Larec reached a point where she stopped growing and started getting weaker as she got more and more tired from the fight.

‘It seems like… I will be entering the halls of blood today after all’ She thought as she was forced to block a whip of the serpent’s tail which knocked her into a wall. She could feel the blood flow from her back as the impact either reopened some of her old wounds or created some new ones ‘At least I die to a worthy opponent’ She thought as she looked up to see the boss opening its maw to finish her off.

An axehead, glowing orange forced the maw to close before it could unleash any attacks as Akol, spiritual wings on his back flew and chopped into the maw of the serpent with immense force aided by deadly gravity.

A large, taloned hand grabbed Larec and started to pull her up “You won’t die so easily on my watch” Tammy assured her as she put herself and her shield between Larec and an incoming water spear as the rest of the team launched their own attacks to distract the overtuned boss of the first floor.

The sound of battle could be clearly heard as cracks of thunder signifying Hans getting a brutal attack in, the twangs and impact of Amelia and Anh’s ranged weapons, the crystalline or natural sound of Akol’s magic and the booms of Ren’s bombs.

Larec wished she could watch the fighting as no doubt her companions in arms would fight as valiantly as they did but Tammy forced her along through the opened doorway and before long, the rest of the team trickled in, one by one before Mark and Hans practically were chased in by the open maw of the serpent as it tried to force it’s too large head in before stopping all of a sudden.

It straightened, not even paying attention to them as if it was listening to something that only it can hear and Larec swore that she could feel… some sort of presence currently with them.

Then, as suddenly as it stopped, it looked back to the party, its eyes shone clearly with intelligence as it stared at them before turning away and slithering back into the central body of water, its wounds slowly regenerating all the while.

The party simply watch as the serpent left them alone, staying silent all the while.

…

“So… anyone want to explore the 2nd floor too?” He asked innocently before the room erupted into conversation, arguing, shouting and screaming.

Larec didn’t care for any of it as she found herself drifting to sleep soon after.

“I am sorry my lord” Asur said in disappointment, all of it towards himself as he hung his head in same “I let the intruders get away and then tried to attack them outside the boss chamber even when they completed the puzzle and opened the path forward”

Tier let out a quiet sigh at the response, he could’ve sworn he heard or seen such responses similar to this one before but… the memories are muddied, locked in a past life.

Still, he thinks he knows how to deal with this kind of conversation “Don’t be, you’ve never been in a fight before or are experienced in any sort of combat whatsoever… you haven’t even actually trained yet so most of the blame is actually on me for not paying enough attention towards you” Tier counselled the giant serpent as he realized his own faults as well.

“Still, I should’ve been in control of myself more, what kind of floor boss am I if I can’t?” Asur asked before he came to term with his own answer “A terrible one… that’s what I a-”

“Stop it, you make a mistake, a stupid one because you were not taught in how to act in a high stress environment while you’re in pain and attacked by those trying to kill you” Tier stopped the train of self-loathing before it could truly begin “All you can do is to look into this situation and grow from it, to grow from your mistakes and shortcomings and to grow to be who you truly are in the future, because starting out no one is perfect and everyone makes mistakes whether they want to or not”

Asur was straighter than a stick as he contemplated on the dungeon core’s words “I-I will try to improve on myself in the future, my lord” He said, bowing to Tier’s invisible presence.

“That’s all that I can ask for, no use wallowing in the past when you can improve for the future” Tier agreed, a sense of pride forming inside his core “I’ll try to set up some training between you, the other active bosses and monsters, a bit of socializing would also do you some good as well… also, please call me Tier, I’m no lord of anyone”

“Yes, my lo-Tier, I will respect your wishes” Asur responded as Tier’s presence left.

‘With that done with, I think I need to do some… very quick adjustments to the 2nd floor… the 1st floor and the first dive into it was… illuminating’ He thought as his presence fled down towards the 2nd floor.