You have entered a dungeon

Get to the other side alive to escape

The entrance room was empty and lit up from an invisible source. All four of them were gathered, looking around. The entrance was blocked, and the only thing in the room except for the bare cave wall was a door leading further into the dungeon.

“So, this is a dungeon?” Brigitta asked.

“It is,” Astrid answered. She could feel her heart beat faster. She really didn’t like being back here.

“Come on, let’s go,” Villads said and walked towards the door.

“Let’s be careful,” Astrid warned. “We don’t know how far the others have gotten. There could still be a lot of monsters beyond this point.

Villads opened the door regardless. Astrid raised her staff, ready to cast a spell if something attacked.

The hallway ahead came into view, and Astrid relaxed a bit. The ground was littered with monster corpses. Clearly Walter and his team had made it through this part of the dungeon.

They proceeded slowly as they had to climb over all the dead monsters.

“This is disgusting,” Brigitta complained.

“Who did the others even manage to fight all these monsters at once?” Filip asked.

“The hallway is narrow, so only a couple of monsters can attack at a time,” Astrid said.

“Hurry up.” Villads said. He moved faster than the others and was already near the end of the hallway.

Astrid picked up the pace, not wanting Villads to enter the next room on his own. Brigitta and Filip did the same, and soon they were all gathered in front of the heavy wood door.

“We don’t know what we’re going to encounter on the other side, so be on guard and stay behind me until we have some idea of what we are dealing with.” Astrid warned.

“Why should we stay behind you?” Villads asked. “Your fighting skill is still at level one, where all of ours are at level two.”

Astrid had forgotten that her friends didn’t know that she had been here before nor how she felt responsible for getting them through this place safely. She doubted they would take it well if she told them, so she had to come up with a better reason. They likely saw her as the weakest member of the group in all but one area.

“It's true you're at a higher level than me, but I have more health, so if something attacks us, I have the best chance of surviving.”

“She makes a fair point.” Filip said

“Alright, Sigrid. Lead the way.”

Astrid opened the door and took a single step inside, scanning the room. It was large and the floor was covered in white tiles. A few of them were missing leaving big holes in the floor. The door was on the opposite side of the wall. About twenty pillars stood randomly around the room. They reached all the way to the ceiling, thirty feet above the ground. A body lay sprawled on the floor next to one of them.

Astrid looked closer at the body. It took her a while to recognize the body as Jerrik. His limbs stuck out at awkward angles, and blood had dried in a large pool all around him. There was no way he could be alive.

Villads was about to run into the room, but Astrid grabbed his arm.

“Wait, we can’t rush into this. We don’t know what happened.”

“Is someone there?” A voice came from one of the holes in the floor.

“Walter?” Villads shouted back.

“Villads? What are you doing here?” Came the angry reply.

“When you didn’t return, we came here to help.”

“Who’s we? Did you bring Astrid?”

“She’s not with you?”

“No. She refused to come along. I think she was right when she said we weren’t ready for this.”

“Don’t worry. We’ll get you out.” Astrid said.

“Don’t go in here.

“But we have to go in there to help,” Villads protested.

It’s a trap. We don’t know where it’s safe to step. It all happened so quickly. Jerrik and Einar, they just…” Walter’s voice trailed off. He was clearly distraught about what had happened. Astrid had no idea where Einar was, as the only body on the ground belonged to Jerrik. That also left Kelan and Ina unaccounted for. She would have to ask Walter about it, but first she wanted to get him out of that hole.

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“Give me a minute. I’ll find out what’s going on with the floor.” Astrid knelt down, studying the tiles carefully. They were square, the same size as the randomly placed pillars and the holes. It didn’t take long before the trap started to make sense.

“Okay, if I’m not mistaken, some of the tiles shoot upwards when you step on them, and some of them sink.”

“That’s what we figured out too.” Walter shouted. “There was a monster too. It came out of nowhere, but we managed to kill it.”

Astrid looked at the walls and saw a continuation of the trap.

“Some of the tiles release a monster.”

“Are any of the tiles safe to step on?” Brigitta asked.

“Of course there is,” Astrid said.

“How do you know all this?” Filip asked.

“I set traps to catch small animals as a child when food was scarce.” She said using the same lie as when she had told Walter. “It gave me the ability to sense traps, so I know where it’s safe to walk. Only step on the tiles that I step on.”

Astrid began moving, not giving the others time to ask more questions. Carefully she guided her friends towards Walter. They made it safely to their destination, and Astrid pulled a rope out of her bag and threw one end down the hole.

“Grab onto this and we’ll pull you up.”

Together they managed to pull Walter out of the hole. He was in bad shape, so Astrid found several potions in her bag and gave them to him.

“Where are Ina and Kelan?” Astrid asked, looking around in case she had missed something.

“I told them to go on. Maybe they could make it out.”

“Didn’t you bring any rope so they could have pulled you out?” Villads asked.

“We did.”

“Then why not use it?”

“We couldn’t. It’s up there.” He pointed to the top of one of the pillars. Its tip was stained red. Astrid instantly knew what Walter meant, and by the shocked gasps, the others knew too. Einer had stepped on a trapped tile, and gotten crushed against the ceiling.

“We should probably move on,” Astrid said after a moment of silence.

“It doesn’t feel right to just leave them here,” Walter said, getting nods of approval from the others. Astrid felt the same way, but there was no way they could carry even one body out of here, let alone two. She doubted they would even be able to recover Einar’s body.

After a while, Astrid began leading the group safely through the room.

“So, you can sense traps like your sister, I see,” Walter said. “Did you hunt too?”

“Yeah,” Astrid said, jumping over a row of trapped tiles.

“Since your sister didn’t catch up with us before we entered the dungeon, I read a hunting book and unlocked the skill. However, I didn’t get the ability to sense traps as I had assumed.”

Astrid could feel the blood drain from her face. What should she do now? Her secret felt dangerously close to being revealed, and she didn’t know how to fix it.

“I’m sorry,” was all she managed to get out.

“How did you really get that ability?” Walter asked. His face was blank and showed no emotions, so she couldn’t tell if he was suspicious or angry or something else. Telling the truth was out of the question.

“I set hunting traps as a child,” she said, sticking to the same story she had made up. “But it wasn’t the hunting skill I unlocked.”

“Oh,” Walter said. “That makes sense, I guess.

“What does?” Filip asked.

“She unlocked the trap skill.” Walter clarified.

“But isn’t that a bad skill?” Brigitta asked with horror in her voice as she looked at Astrid for an explanation.

“Right now, I find it pretty useful.” Astrid defended.

“It doesn’t matter where Sigrid got the skill from as long as she gets us safely through this room,” Walter said leaving no room for further discussion. Astrid felt grateful for that.

They made it safely to the door that led out of the room.

“Do we have a plan for dealing with monsters on the other side?” Astrid asked.

“Kelan is the one who has the protective barrier, but he’s already gone in there with Ina. Does any of you have a shield that can cover all of us?”

Astrid technically had one, but she shook her head like the others. The sacred ground spell wasn’t something she could cast without giving away that she was a follower of a god and theyn they would undoubtedly question which one. It created a barrier like those surrounding temples. Only those who followed a god could learn to do it.

“Then we’ll just have to fight without a shield. You all have ranged attacks, right?

“Yes,” Villads said.

“Then I’ll keep them at a distance, and you hit them with spells.”

Astrid pushed the door open, letting Walter go through first. He wasted no time sending a powerful wind through the hallway, pushing all the monsters inside back. Astrid cast the fire blast at the closest monster. Before retreating again. The hallway was only wide enough for two of them standing side by side, and one of them had to be Walter, so the others took turns moving up to cast a spell and then back again. After a minute of trying, they fell into a circular pattern that kept up a nonstop barrage of attacks on the monsters. Astrid was the first who had to take a mana potion as she was still level one and hadn’t yet gotten the bonus.

Slowly but surely the number of monsters thinned out, and no one took serious damage as Walter did a good job keeping them all at a distance. The few monsters daring to use ranged attacks were more likely to hit other monsters than any of the five combat magicians. Soon they were able to see two figures huddling together on the ground against the wall halfway down the hallway.

“It’s them,” Walter said, rushing towards them and using the wind spell to push away any monster in his path. Astrid and the others followed, not wanting to get left behind.

“What’s wrong?” Walter asked.

“We’re out of mana and mana potions, and the barrier won’t hold much longer. Kelan said his voice weak from exhaustion.

Astrid had thought that a sacred barrier like the one the healer had cast would have been infallible, as unlike a shield, you didn’t have to continuously feed it mana to sustain it. However, now that she thought about it, it made sense that it would lose mana every time it had to deflect an attack. It still made it a lot stronger than any other shield she knew about, but unless cast by an actual god, there were limits to how long it could be sustained.

“I have mana potions,” Astrid said, handing one to Kelan and one to Ina.

“Thanks,” they said, then downed the content.

Astrid and her friends got back to firing spells at the monsters for what felt like an eternity. They had to step outside the protective barrier to launch their attack, putting them at risk of getting struck in return.

Stamina and mana potions were rapidly expended by the team, but she also used several potions to refill health, focus, and spirit as Kelan didn’t have the strength to use healing magic. Eventually the last monster fell, and the hallway went silent.

“We’ll rest here for a bit before moving on,” Walter declared. At the words, they collapsed to the ground. Astrid was relieved they had made it this far, but there was still some way to go. Getting as much rest as possible while they had the chance was important, as there was no way to tell what they would find in the next room.