After a simple breakfast of some kind of egg and meat slices , the trio headed back to the guild hall for their first mission.

Scanning through the notices on the monster hunting board. Lex decided to look at the dungeon diving boards.

“ we need to learn more about things before we go monster hunting. I think we can make more money dungeon crawling to start with.”

Looking through the quests , it looked like they could do the first three floors. They were the most visited but still had uncharted areas. Lex thought he could make some money selling maps .

Collecting the quests , the trio handed over the sheet to the clerk to be stamped and left for the dungeon.

Alloy marked the dungeon on his map. The group walked to the area where the dungeon was. The journey took just over an hour. When they arrived they stood in front of a large pair of metal gates, with a door at one corner for people to enter through.

The group checked their packs and summoned their weapons. Ella hooked her staff over her shoulder and held her crossbow in hand.

Lex created a metal arm with a 2 ft roundel in one hand and the war pick in the other.

Tatty didn't bother with her claws because she could bring them out when needed.

Entering the dungeon through the smaller doors.

The air was cool and musty. There were light stones placed down the walls , casting a dim, but functional illumination.

Lexs’ map updated, mapping out up to 30 meters circle. As he walked forward the map added more.

After a couple of hours of wondering round and killing off rats and dog like monsters the trio finally came upon a set of stairs. They sat on the top step and had a quick drink and snack break.

“ I was expecting more, to be honest.” said Ella while putting the top back on her bottle.

“what do you mean?”

“ Well. In games you get skeletons and demons. We got rats, dogs and some sort of insects.”

“ this is the first floor. By design I expect it gets harder the deeper we go.”

“ makes sense. Ease us in to it so we don’t get killed off to early.”

“yep. that’s why we are only allowed to do the first few floors, until we get stronger.”

They packed the bottles away and descended the stairs.

Mapping the second floor and killing off more dog monsters and larger insects. There was finally a change of inhabitants. Several serpents and lizards appeared.

“ooh, now we’re talking. We gotta be able to make something from snake skin. Try to get head shots only. Keep the skin in tacked. Also I think we need the fangs as proof. I’ll check the book when we kill them.”

The snakes were quite slow but the lizards were quick and agile. One even had fire breath. Lex took that one as he had a shield. He changed it for his thicker larger kite shield. Aiming his pick at the ear hole on the side of it’s head. Impaling it on the spike .

The girls took out the snakes leaving the lizards to Lex as his shield was affective against the claws. After 15 minutes of fighting all monsters were dead. Lex summoned his skinning knife and carefully took the snake and lizard skin and rolled it up. Checking his book for the proofs needed he went round the reptiles collecting cores and fang. He took more than needed and put them separate. Maybe they could be sold or used for something. He need to learn more about things in this world. The packs were getting full, so Lex decided to finish the second floor and head back to town. When they finally found the stairs, Lex saved up his map and decided to call it a day. On the way back , they came across a side passage that was not there on the way in. It didn’t seem too large so Lex told the girls to wait and squeezed down. Walking further in a bright light engulfed him and he was gone. The tunnel closed.

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“Lex! Lex!” Ella called as she tried to open the gap back up. She tried jamming her staff into the gap to pry it open.

A green box appeared in Ella’s view, she opened it.

“ hey sis. I’m ok. According to Al I’ve been warped to a lower level.”

“ what? How? Where are you. Do you know?”

“ no idea. Take the stuff back to the guild and head back to the inn. you’ll get money for the stuff you have. I’ll make my way up, probably wont be till late though so don’t wait up. I don’t know how long this will take, at least I’ve got my mapping so I won’t get lost.”

“ how can we just leave you here. We can come down and help.”

“ no. I don’t even know what floor I’m on. Just take Tatty and go back.”

Unhappy with the situation the girls returned to the guild hall.”

“ At least we can report the warp trap, in case it’s unknown.”

Tatty squeezed Ella's hand to reassure her. They handed over the parts and quest sheets. And reported the warp and what had happened to their party in the dungeon. She informed them that Lex had been transferred to a lower floor but they didn’t know which one.

The clerk handed over two round silver 3 square silver and 20 copper.

With the business side finished the girls went back to the inn and headed to the bath to soak the tiredness away. After a nice soak the pair sat down for dinner.

The inn keeper brought the food out and looked at the empty seat.

“ no brother tonight.”

“ no. There was an accident and he was warped away to another part of the dungeon. He’s ok but lost. He said he should be back later but he don’t know when.”

“ how worrying, are you ok dearie?”

“ we are. Just hope everything is ok with him. He don’t even know where he is. “

Tatty looked at Ella in a concerned way.” will he be ok on his own? I’m scared for him.” tears in her eyes.

“ it’s ok. He’s tougher than he looks. It wasn’t long ago he protected us from a crashing meteor. He survived that ok, didn’t he?”

“ I guess . it’s just that he’s all alone in a dark dungeon. “ she started getting more worked up. The inn keeper patted her head.

“ he seems quite strong dearie. I think it will all work out in the end.”

Finishing dinner the girls went to their room. No romance tonight , just cuddles to reassure each other. Both sinking into an uneasy restless sleep.

“ Lex . I think it would be a good idea to start moving . I am picking up 5 life signs coming this way.”

This was the 4th encounter so far on this floor. According to the map this was the 7th floor. Lex wondered where in his life had he taken this turn.

He had formed a metal armour for his body and arms. It wasn’t quite as good as the armour he’d seen online but it was the best he could do from memory. He had also created a larger tower shield to hide behind.

“ when you find the time , you have levelled a few times. Obviously not now but when there is time.”

“did my sister get out ok? She didn’t hit any problems did she?”

“ She left the area of the dungeon. She’s now out of range so probability is she has returned to town. Both her and tatty.”

“ thanks Al. that’s one thing less to worry about.”

Three large black wolves and a dire wolf prowled around the edges of the room. Looking at the teeth on the dire wolf, Lex thickened the metal on his arms and added spikes to stop bites. He remembered a bear fighting armour he saw.

“ Thanks pinterest. I’ll never moan at Ella again.”

The wolves closed in to attack. Lex thrust the shield forward knocking one to the floor swinging his pick at the second hitting it’s flank.the wolf cried out in pain. Lex pursued the injured wolf and sunk the pick in it’s head. It was so much easier with back up. Still two more and a big one to go.

Lex leaped at the closest wolf a brought his shield edge down , breaking its back. Pounding it down again on its neck and head killing it .

The third wolf lunged at Lex and he held his spiked arm up. The spikes tore into soft flesh and the wolf yelped. Lex pulled out his knife and sowing machine stabbed at the wolves stomach. Pushing it of himself lex turned to face the dire wolf. He absorbed his pick and put his knife back in the belt sheaf. Lex created a spear with a long bladed head. Thinking that keeping distance from the huge beast would be his best chance.

Holding his shield forward with the spear resting on top, Lex slowly moved towards the wolf.

The wolf swung out its clawed paw, knocking the shield to the side. Lex jabbed the spear and caught a glancing blow to his leg. His skin ripped and he cried out in pain. Hiding behind his shield , he created leg armour. Although it was a little late, and his leg was already bleeding . Lex decided the more armour the better, he could bandage up later.

Facing the wolf again . Lex kept thrusting the spear , unkown to the wolf . as he moved forward he was extending the shaft. Dropping the shield Lex pulled back and threw the spear at the wolves chest using Alloy to target. The long blade sunk into the chest and pierced the heart.

Cancelling his armour and weapons. Lex pulled out a bottle of disinfectant and a bandage, cleaning and wrapping his third injury for this floor. He was learning the importance of armour and where to armour to negate injury. After a clean up, Le sat down to eat and have a drink. He was feeling worn out, been alone took a lot out of him. Alloy could keep watch but he still had to cover his own back. And with the increasing injuries it was getting harder and slower.

Finishing his break , Lex took his knife and collected the cores and right paws of the wolves.

Having a thought, Lex skinned the dire wolf. He remembered a few hundred meters back there was a hole in the wall. Big enough to crawl in.

Lex put the skin on the floor fur up and put his sleeping bag on top. He created a shield and jammed it in place, blocking the hole. With Al keeping watch, he should be able to get a couple of hours sleep. The time was 3.45am. Lex was dead on his feet. Downing more water, he settled into his bag and drifted to sleep. Wishing he had better painkillers than just shop bought.