The initial dungeons entrance path was not large and required some real contortionist work in Turnip's case. Technically I guess we were in the dungeon proper but we had yet to hit the 'entry' room. After maybe 10 minutes of careful travel we did finally manage to get to the spot with Turnip and Root both muttering as they would occasionally get stuck.

The room we eventually came to was a natural looking cave with a dark ceiling that held stalactites. A small circle of stones could be seen off to the side with blacked soot on the bottom. A small stack of wood near the small fire pit. The size of the room looked like it could fit about 8 to 10 people laying down without getting too crowded. If it was not for our varied light sources the entire space would be pitch black.

"Alright this is it, the room is safe to light a fire in that small fire pit over there. The wood always restocks between floors, and it can be used to make a torch if you are desperate. If we need to sleep then this is where we will rest up." Fin said.

"You guys think I should use my one ability, you know the eyes?" I asked our group.

"If you are doing something you've done before yes… just please be careful I don't want another event like the ears…" Root said.

"Alright, please don't freak out, I have a rather interesting skill that has been very useful in the past few weeks now." I told Fin. I then focused on my eyes and changed them to cat eyes like before. I even make my eyes a little bigger than before just to provide more surface area to capture light.

"What on dirt?" Fin said.

"Yeah… eyes are the worst." I said, with a shiver of discomfort.

"How did… I've never heard or seen a skill that can do that!" Fin said in shock.

"I really can't explain how I got the skill, it's not tied to my current class l. Also please don't spread tails of this, if it was not for my own safety I never would have shown you." I said.

"I… wow you are very very odd… like a Riftwalker or some other legendary adventure." He said.

My wince at his comment must have been too obvious…

"Wait… nooo….. are you?" He asked.

"... it's the reason why the Seekers found me suspicious at first. It's bound to become well known at some point that's why I'm not denying it but please also do not spin tails of meeting a Riftwalker just yet." I said.

"I… fuck I have so many questions… like you really came from another world? That's always the tail I have heard." He said.

"Can we please stay focused. If you get her started then we will be stuck here for the next eternity." Root said.

"Root’s right… to pay for your silence we can rent a private dining room and I can spend the night answering your questions. As long as Iser gets to record everything… '' I said with a sigh.

"Right… this would be better over drinks and food anyway… wow I'm a guide for a Riftwalker… I might never have to pay for a drink again if I can spin this just right. It also explains so much…" He said to himself.

"Please focus… she's just like one of us… or well at least like Iser." Root said.

"Hey what's that supposed to mean? Iser's great." I said.

"What she said… but in reverse." Iser said.

"And there you have it." Root said.

"Sorry, you're right… Let's push forward. Be on your guard the area immediately around the floor entrance is generally safe but not always." He said, then proceeded to sneak through.

Greetings us on the first floor was more cave. Dark stone was everywhere and our lights didn't scatter all that much giving the impression of harsh shadows. At least on this level the floor felt rough and provided a firm grip however it was not entirely level. The ceiling was also lower in spots and the entire area was very jagged.

"Are we going to see all floors like this or is there variation?" I asked Fin in a whisper.

"Each floor will have a 'theme' on underground caverns." Fin whispered back.

"Right so this one will continue to be rough and jagged the entire way through." I said.

"Yes, others might be underground rivers for example." He replied.

"Any form of black glass like rock?" I asked

"Obsidian?" He asked back.

"Yep… I'll take that as yes there is or could be." I said, he nodded in reply.

I closed my eyes for a moment and focused on my pathing skill. I dumped maybe 40 points of mana into the skill and let the must of magic scout out the area for me.

It was sort of like a radar return, I had a sense of what was around me in terms of the structure of the area. I could 'see' spots where someone might be able to hide, and possibly passages out to around 60 feet. I was unable to see any people or objects on anything like that, just the static structure of the area around me.

"Alright I'm getting a sense of the physical structure of the 'cave'. Obviously there is a path ahead that way." I whispered and pointed towards a path roughly 'North' of where we were currently at.

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"I have a second large path that way. And a much smaller opening that way and to the left. Last one is quite low to the ground and a tight squeeze." I whispered and pointed first to the 'east' then to the west.

"Not bad, there are likely two spots we could slip through. Look for a boulder that seems a little different from the rest." Fin whispered.

"One second." I said and pinged the area with my identity ability burning more mana when I did.

"There." I then pointed at a massive chunk of stone that looked to weigh several hundred tons.

"Can I borrow you for like a week? You in a few seconds found what normally would take 10 minutes." Fin said.

I checked my Mana.

Mana 50/120

"Well I burned over half my mana to do that." I said.

"Oh wow… ok so not something you can do all so often." Fin said.

"Ok so each floor is going to look like some sort of cave system. Each with both generic and specific challenges." He said.

"For the first floor it's mostly going to be old traps or 'natural' cave dangers. Oh also be careful of something someone called a 'whip kitty'. It looks sort of like a panther but with tentacles coming out of its back.

I froze at that description.

"You ok?" Orlo asked in a whisper.

"Umm… does it have the ability to 'create' duplicates of itself." I asked.

"Yeah, how did you know?" Fin asked.

".... Fuck me sideways…" I whispered.

"You seemed to be surprised when you heard of the dungeons description l gave before, you know something." Orlo whispered.

"It could be a coincidence… Fin… does 'skin as dark as midnight' ring any bells?" I asked.

He looked at me in surprise.

"Yeah… we like to save the specifics for new delvers in this dungeon as watching the reaction is always fun." Fin said in shock.

"How long has this dungeon been around for, do you know?" I asked.

"Maybe 200 or 300 years." He said.

It was my turn to be shocked.

"Nicole what's going on in that head of yours?" Lluvia asked.

"I don't know yet… it could be a coincidence… but I am confused. I I figured it would be 40 or 50 years old maybe." I said.

"Anything that might be helpful?" Root asked.

"Off hand none that I can think of." I said.

"Then let's move forward and we can explore what you're going on about later." Root finished.

Fin went up to the indicated rock from a moment ago pulled out a dagger then stabbed the massive boulder. It sort of popped like a soap bubble.

"A word of warning, some of these illusions feel real until you put a bit more force behind your effort. This one as an example looked and felt just like the stone. However if you had tried to climb on it it would have popped." Fin said.

We then examined the passage, it was a very narrow corridor that would take some maneuvering to get through. Unfortunately it looked like it kept going on for quite a while.

The first floor was much like that and took at least 30 minutes to traverse. Push and pulling each other threw narrow points in the dungeon. It was also an underground maze which held plenty of dead ends as points branched, or paths looped back on themselves. We didn't encounter anything remotely dangerous in terms of monsters however.

We eventually came back to a familiar room and took a bit of a breather. This time we had come in via the wall that was originally just solid stone opposite the fire pit. The dungeon appeared to have modified the entry room to provide a path to the outside, a path to the previous floor and a path to the next floor.

"Alright, does anyone need to take a break? That was generally one of the more mentally taxing floors due to the ability to get lost and the small spaces." Fin said.

"Give me a few minutes… I'm a bird. I prefer the open sky." Orlo said.

"By the way, thanks to your Riftwalker friend we might actually have a new record for fastest time." Fin said.

"Fuck… I would rather not advertise that at the moment." I said.

"Fair, then again so few ever take any sort of mapping skill… most cartographers I think prefer more static structures." He said with a small chuckle.

"Next up?" I asked.

"If we are really lucky it's a new version of the floor we just did. Even the floors tend to randomize what challenge gets presented." He said.

"And if we are very unlikely?" I asked.

"The city…" he said.

That got startled looks from everyone else but me. I just closed my eyes and smiled.

"The city has a real 'spider' fixation if I had to guess and could be populated by mostly dark skinned elves." I said more than asked but waited for confirmation.

"Ok who did you talk to… did the Seekers say something to you about all of this? As unlikely as that would all seem." Fin said.

"No and it won't be the place I am thinking of but it will be a representation I suspect." I said.

"Ok as we do have a few minutes… care to explain Nicole?" Root asked.

"Sure, this is a replica of a place called the Underdark. It comes from a fictional game world where I come from." I said.

"Ah… yes we have seen dungeons apply our own fictional elements to dungeons as well. Or at least I remember finding a scroll on the subject some years back." Iser said.

"Wait, are you saying dungeons are reacting to our own stories?" Lluvia asked.

"Yes I believe so." Iser said.

"Ok that actually relieves my tension over the subject… I'm now sort of questioning what sort of influence your world has over mine…" I said.

"Alright… enough philosophy it's not helpful in the least right now." Root said, trying to pull everyone back on track. He did seem a bit more stressed than normal but seemed to be holding it together.

"Hey what's up with Root." I asked Turnip.

"Oh he's claustrophobic, he's doing very well admittedly, keeping his cool." Turnip said to me.

"Ouch… wait isn't he like part Rabbit? Don't rabbits Burrow?" I asked Turnip.

"We don't build homes underground… mostly." Turnip said.

"Don't blame them, it's cooler underground…" I said, that in turn got me an odd look.

We finished up our short rest (even thinking of the term made me almost burst out laughing) and started the process of squeezing everyone through the gap to the next floor.

Eventually we worked our way to the next floor and had to take another breather. Orlo was definitely not doing great due to the stress of confined spaces. Root was not doing much better at this point, he had gotten stuck twice just trying to make it to the next floor.