Shipment One received at Port Fleiss. Additional Resource proved difficult to transport. Has been placed in holding until a more secure caravan can be arranged.

When they entered the boss room, the first thing Asher felt was disappoint. Me had expected some grand spectacle. A show of danger and the monsters to come! Instead, once you were past the column of spinning flames, which were admittedly quite cool, she found a rather boring island. The ground was made of the same pumice and obsidian that they’d been trekking along for weeks now, though she had to admit the obsidian in here was particular reflective.

Large boulders of the stuff protruded from the ground like spikes weird angles, creating something of a maze through the surroundings. The flames of the fire column swam across the volcanic glass’s surface, sending glimmers of rainbow light flickering across the island. Small areas of darkness could be seen at the bases of the columns, but for the most part light bathed the entire area.

The only spot of particular note was at the very center of the island, where a cave mouth yawned. Asher couldn’t make out anything from inside the cave, but large stalactites and stalagmites made seem more like some massive maw. She could see a haze in the air coming out of the cave mouth, like some kind of furnace vent releasing even more heat into the air.

There was a small bit of beach to their tiny island, and area where the pumice and obsidian had been worn down to something like a rock garden. Nothing so fine as to be sand, but obviously clearer of obstacles than the center of the island.

“Well at least there is plenty of cover,” Xavier spoke up. “I should be able to make some decent bulwarks out of all that stone. Should even the odds a bit against anything out in the lava.”

“Could be just as much of a problem if we have to deal with some kind of swarm,” Balam spoke up, his voice cautious.

Xavier conceded the point with a nod, but continued to look to all the stone with an air of excitement. Obviously, the earth mage was confident he could eke out more benefits than deficits from their surroundings.

“Well, I wouldn’t worry about that just yet. The first monster is more likely to come out of that cave in the middle of the island. I want everybody in position, most of the people we talked to said the first boss should show up in ten minutes or so. Xavier, if you want to throw up some basic barricades go for it. Don’t get too caught up in the work though. You’ll have plenty of time for that later.”

“Aye, I will see what I can do. We should hurry though, the faster we get there the more time I will have.”

The group had moved quickly but cautiously through the stone after that, heading toward the ominous cave. As they went, Asher began to notice more details to the island. Small holes in the ground occasionally blasted superheated steam into the air. Not as dangerous as what they had seen at the bridge, but easily hot enough to scald and cause serious burns. Veronika noted them as well, and said she would have her temperature protection spells ready.

Cracks were obvious on the ground, and even ran to some of the columns. Xavier even confirmed they left more than a few of the big obsidian structures unstable, though he was quick to fix any the group approached. He warned that anybody getting to far from him should be careful of pitfalls, rockslides, and collapsing columns. Then he started pointing out signs of imminent failure so the others would know what to look for.

Large fern like plants with massive purple and white flowers that seemed halfway between a lily and upside down bleeding hearts sat in almost any dark spot they passed. Some kind of fungus spread white, mucus covered feelers across the ground in a wide area. Another type of fern with no flowers, but long hanging strands of leaves set up high on pillars and draped their strands over the edge to hang at head height.

All three were predatory according to Andre. The lilly things let out a sickly sweet smelling gas that caused you to pass out if you didn’t get away fast enough. The fungus mucus was highly toxic, and would cause red and black splotching on any exposed skin that touched it. Once it was dry it was safe to touch, and that happened fairly quickly so getting it on clothes was less of a concern. The draping vines would attempt to wrap around your neck and strangle you, dragging you into the air as the vines shortened themselves.

Overall, the island was far more deadly than she had initially given it credit for. Something that both excited her and set her on edge.

Eventually they’d made it to the center, and Xavier had immediately set to work. He formed long spikes of rock pointing toward the cave mount. Dug pits before piling the excess rock on the caveward side, creating cover. He even set up some rocks over the entrance that he could collapse with a thought. He’d just finished that rockfall trap, when they heard a bellow from deep in the cave and the sound of heavy hooves on stone.

What emerged was an absolutely massive Blazehorn Deer. The ones she’d seen before were maybe as tall as her belly button, with match stick size flames protruding from their hooves. This thing was closer in size to a moose. Massive, roiling balls of flame hung from each point on its antlers and each step left a black char mark on the ground as flames aggressively flew from its hooves. It maintained the deep red coloration, though now had accents of orange and white. Veins of living flame seemed to cover its body, giving a light glow.

“Alright everyone, as expected the first thing we’re fighting is a Greater Blazehorn Deer. Andre, I want you keeping it distracted. Balam, try to cripple those legs. Xavier, any time it tries to get into a full speed charge I want rock spikes blocking its path. Veronika and Asher, hit it with everything you’ve got. It doesn’t have the best defense, but it’s fast so try to take advantage of any moment we have it pinned down.”

#

The fight had gone quickly in the end. Andre was easily able to keep the things attention on him, extending and strengthening to choking vines to drag it around. They weren’t strong enough to entirely stop the beast, but they were able to make Andre annoying enough that it couldn’t ignore him.

On the handful of occasions when the big bull man needed a break, Balam would tag in. He wasn’t able to take the same kinds of hits Andre could, but he was far faster than the massive deer. Turning into a full jaguar, he had constantly harried the things flank and legs, leaping out of the way before the boss could launch any sort of reprisal.

The small injuries Balam and Xavier had aimed at its legs while Andre entangled it had built up, though the thing had slowly exhausted itself trying to prevent the damage. Eventually it was simply too tired and too hobbled to make the kind of massive charges it had started out the fight with.

They’d still had to be careful of the spells though. Fire launched into the air before it rained down on an area like thousands of little orbs of death. A condensed beam of fire that could melt through the obsidian. Fire breath that seemed to flood around the stone barriers and obstacles like some kind of burning river rapids.

But Blazehorn Deer weren’t built for endurance spell casting. Most of their power was in their bodies, with spells meant to augment the danger of their sharp antlers and ferocious charges. Swiftly its mana, too, had been exhausted.

After that it had been shooting fish in a barrel. Andre used his plants to keep it from moving more than a few inches in any direction while Veronika and Asher unloaded spell after spell into it. The beast had been hardier than she expected, though she supposed it was a large boss monster.

Eventually it had given in, though it had gifted them one last surprise before it died. All the veins of flame had seemed to run dry and color had rapidly disappeared from its pelt as its antlers began to gleam with greater and greater heat. The thing had bellowed in rage and pain, but never stopped as the antlers began to crack.

It was only then that Asher realized she and Veronika had gotten too far away from the defensive trenches Xavier had prepared. They’d known the Greater Blazehorn Deer could do this, but in the heat of battle it hadn’t entered their minds. The team had had to go with plan B.

“How you doing over there Sahar,” Asher asked, in the quietest voice she could manage.

All she got back in response was a groan and the woman shifting as she massaged her temples. Sahar had used her “Guardian Stars” spell, the single most powerful barrier she knew, to contain the antler’s explosion. Which apparently left her with quite the headache and pretty low on mana. She wouldn’t be able to do any more serious spell casting for about another day, though she could manage less demanding healing spells in the meantime.

“Thanks for the save,” Asher continued softly. “We’re getting your tent and sleeping bag set up, so you’ll be able to get more comfortable soon.”

Currently their poor, miserable healer was curled up under one of the pillars. She’d cast a weaker barrier that was meant to promote a relaxing atmosphere inside and help dampen sound a light, had take some kind of willow-based potion that Asher assumed was this worlds version of aspirin, and collapsed in the closest shade she could find after the battle.

Asher backed away after she finished speak. Sahar seemed to be doing better already, though Asher didn’t want to push the other woman. Andre had assured Asher that some quiet, the willow potion, and a quick nap would have Sahar mostly back to herself in half an hour or so. Asher still felt bad for the entire thing though. If she’d been more aware, the entire thing could have been avoided.

Or if I had thought to use Thunderstep. Though that would have still left Veronika there.

In the end, the only thing she could say was that she needed more practice. She’d realized she had done something stupid, then made it worse by panicking. The only solution, as far as she could tell, was more experience. Xavier had agreed with her.

When Andre found her a short while later, she had been brainstorming ways to get that experience. Practice she could do to make sure she responded correctly the next time. The big man had been supportive of her ideas, but had cautioned her against going overboard.

“Don’t go beating yourself up too bad, yeah? Sure, this sucks for Sahar right now, but it will be over pretty soon. And she’d rather pay this price a thousand times over than see you and Veronika get blown up. You’ll just have to do better with the next one.”

“Yeah, I just hope we don’t end up needing that spell for the next fight.”

The plant mage had winced at that, “Yeah, that would pretty rough on her. She tries to give it a few days before casting it again. Otherwise, the aftereffects start to accumulate. Still, if the next thing is what we expect, it won’t have any spells that are nearly as destructive. We should be fine.”

No, the next monster would provide its own set of challenges. They expected they would need to fight one of the big lava eels they’d seen earlier in the dungeon. The things were supposedly field bosses in various areas of the dungeon, though those were mostly adolescents. Same as what they had seen in the falls. The adults were supposed to be identifiable by the red stripes along either side and the fact they tended to drool magma. They would drink the molten rock and keep it in a secondary stomach, ready to be spit out in streams or globules at anything that offended them.

The problem for them, was that they had no easy way to take down something that hid in the lava and refused to emerge. If they couldn’t take it down quickly, they wouldn’t have time to recover for the third boss. The worst case scenario was that they would even end up needing to fight two bosses at once, if the thing just decided to submerge and not come out.

“Did we get anything useful from the first boss?” She asked hopefully.

“Useful sure. An asset in killing a hundred-foot-long lava dwelling eel? No.”

He laughed at the sour look on her face. Clearly the man wasn’t worried much. That lifted her spirits. If he wasn’t worried about it, why should she be? He was the experienced one. Besides, it’s not like worry would change anything at this point. They had a plan, and she just had to shoot a whole lot of lightning. As long as the boss wasn’t a coward, they should be fine.

“What did we get then?”

“Well, the main prize was three Blaze Charms. They’re little tokens carved from Blazehorn antler that are enchanted to empower flame spells. They’ll also produce a barrier against heat and fire if you feed mana into them. I was thinking I could punch a hole in your staff and string a strip of leather through it, then you could hang one of these charms and any other charms you happen to come across from it.”

“You sure I’m the best person for one of those? Wouldn’t they be more useful for you and Xavier? Maybe Balam, though I know he doesn’t have that much mana to spare.”

“We’re sure. Xavier got one of them too, and I’ve got something else I’ve been working on for extra fire protection. As for the third…for now Veronika is taking it. She has the most mana of any of us, so she’d be able to keep up a barrier the longest. We might end up selling it in the long run though. Xavier thinks there’s a chance the things will slightly enhance your lightning magic, but mostly we just want to give you a second real defensive option.”

“Well, I’m not going to argue against free stuff. What else did we pick up?”

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

“Besides that, its mostly crafting materials. I have a plan for some of it, and so does Andre, but the rest we’ll end up selling. I’d tell you what, specifically, we got, but we both know you don’t care. You can expect your share to be somewhere in the ten to twenty gold range.”

“Damn, bosses really do give some good loot huh?”

“Oh definitely. This dungeon would be incredibly popular if it wasn’t so annoying.

After they finished talking, Asher had handed over her staff. She didn’t expect to need it for the rest of the day, as overall the boss room was considered the next best thing to a safe room if no boss was actually present. The plants didn’t move, and their camp site had already been stabilized. There was nothing to worry about.

#

When she’d gotten the staff back in the morning, she realized she’d been tricked. Andre had wanted to do more than just punch a small hole in it. Carved into the side of the wood were rough images of every member of Green Dawn.

She could see Balam stalking around in his half leopard form, Veronika creating a large icicle, and Xavier raising one of his statues. Andre himself was charging forward in his vine armor, whip raised. Next was herself, lightning jumping between her hands, while lastly Sahar looked over all of them with a pleasant smile.

He’d also carved a number of glyphs in the wood, which he’d explained were protective sigils from each of their cultures. Nothing actually magical, but he had thought her staff needed a little more character. Asher was pretty much positive this was the best present she had ever gotten.

Andre hadn’t been the only one working of course. As he had promised, Xavier had been putting his famed architectural skills to work. He wasn’t content to build them something as simple and droll as a bunker on the beach for their coming fight, no he had had to build an honest to god miniature castle.

High walls an enclosed parapet and murder holes to shoot spells from faced the lava in challenge. Each was easily fifteen feet tall, and built with stability in mind. They were far thicker than any wall she had seen before. The entire thing was only marginally less impressive when she realized the wall only went around about two thirds of the fortress, set up to prevent attacks from the lava but not from inland.

In the center of the walls, a single tower rose. The overall shape was reminiscent of a lighthouse, with a large, covered platform sitting on the top. It was relatively small, only twenty-five feet across. The space inside was even more cramped, considering each wall was almost five feet of solid stone. The inside was a simple ladder taking someone to the very top, meaning most of the building was just a hollow cylinder. That was fine though, because when she got to the top she realized just how much though the earth mage had put into the building.

The height was carefully calculated to be as low as possible, while still giving an unobstructed view of the surrounding lake front. Just high enough that none of the surrounding pillars could block their view. The height meant the tower should be plenty stable, keeping them from needing to worry about a collapse, while never letting the eel escape her and Veronika’s sight. As long as they were up here, it would have nowhere above the surface to hide.

In the final hour before the next boss was anticipated to arrive, Veronika had made her own contribution to the defense. She layered the walls in a thick coat of ice, in an effort to reinforce the defenses and protect them from the high heat they would likely be exposed to.

At the same time, Asher had prepared a number of spears for Balam by infusing them with her Electropulse Enchantment. Balam, unfortunately, was likely to be the least helpful in this particular boss fight. None of his spells granted him real ranged options, and he was forced to rely on a bow and thrown spears. The draw weight on his bow was immense, and he could throw the spears with incredibly accuracy and power, but it was still a much more limited form of attack than the rest of them could contribute.

She had assumed Andre would be in much the same boat, but the plant mage was clearly planning something. While the rest of them had been distracted, he’d been throwing something Asher hadn’t been able to make out into the surrounding lava. She wasn’t entirely sure what he had in mind, but looked forward to seeing whatever it was in action.

#

“What was that you used against the eel Andre?”

Balam’s voice was surprisingly animated given his usual reclusive nature, but Asher couldn’t blame him. They had been right about the next boss being and Adult Lava Eel, and the thing had been smart enough to begin spending much of its time under the surface of the lava after the first few minutes. It would emerge just long enough to send a pot shot or two in their direction before diving back down, giving Asher and Veronika little time to mount a counter attack.

There had been more than a little bit of worry that the beast would manage to drag out this fight far longer than they were comfortable with. The things defenses were pretty impressive, and the two women had been having a difficult time leaving more than a scratch on its tough hide. It was obvious they were in for the long haul unless something changed.

Andre had provided that paradigm shift.

“It was something I found while doing a bit of exploration around the dungeon. One of the plants that I’m pretty sure serves as food for the weaker lava dwelling monsters. The system called it a Sepatu Lily, though it also gave the name Flamedrinker Lily.”

As Veronika and Xavier had been debating methods to try to pen the boss and force it to the surface, Andre had called out for everyone to get ready. He’d said he had a plan, and everyone should get their strongest spells ready because he wasn’t sure how long he could give them. As far as she could tell, none of them knew what was going on besides possibly Sahar. It was hard to get a read on what she did and didn’t know, and she had a better poker face than anyone Asher had ever met.

Even her mask had cracked with a bit of surprise when a forest of red and black leafy tentacles had erupted from the lake of lava. They hadn’t been able to drag the eel up in its entirety, but Xavier had forced the things head above the surface. That was a plenty large enough target for the rest of them, and they’d struck their first real blow against the boss.

The thing had quickly ripped free of course, biting through some kind of large floating flower that had been almost impossible to make out in the glare and shifting light of the lava. The affects were obvious, though, as the surrounding roots went limp. Andre could still control those individual, severed roots, but he’d told her in the past it became far more complicated since his magic began treating each one like a separate individual rather that multiple parts of a whole. He had some plan to make that no longer an issue when he finally upgraded the spell into an Advanced variant, but for now it was more mana efficient to simply switch to a new plant.

This had caused the entire fight to devolve into something a chess match between Andre and the big eel. Him working to spin together webs, block off escape routes, and reinforce the plants enough to force the boss to the surface. It doing its best to destroy any flower before Andre completed his work.

A few times he had dragged the beast close enough to the shore for Xavier and Veronika to reinforce his hold, and those had proven decisive moments in the fight. Each time the thing had been trapped for long minutes as they rained blow after blow and spell after spell down on it. It would inevitably escape, but in far worse condition than it had been before.

As for the beast’s own attacks, they had proved fairly nonthreatening. Almost all the weaker attacks it could bring to bear were easily blocked by Xavier and Veronika, with the rest being stopped by Sahar’s barriers. The stronger attacks were too much for those three, but that was ok. It was obvious when the boss was preparing such an attack, and they would retreat behind the walls Xavier had built. Nothing the monster tried had proven capable of penetrating those solid protections.

At least not until it got truly desperate.

Missing teeth, snout torn to shreds, and only avoiding death by blood loss thanks to the lava searing the wounds shut, the beast had made one final attempt to break them. It was something they hadn’t been warned of, but that made sense. Few teams had a mage well versed enough in architecture and with the right spells to build a castle in a single day. Realizing there was no chance of its lava destroying their walls and killing them, the beast had decided to use something far more destructive.

Its own body.

The thing had disappeared deep under the lava, deeper than it had gone before. With its final, frenetic energy, it actually managed to escape Andre’s searching net of roots. From there, it had built up speed until it was swimming as quickly as possible. Then, it had aimed itself at their little beach defense and leapt from the lava. Beaching itself in a thundering, crashing collision.

Thankfully, Balam and Andre had combined their senses and figured out what was happening before it got a chance to launch from the lava. They had quickly evacuated, burning mana to rapidly vacate the fortress. When the thing had smashed through the walls and collapsed the tower, killing itself in the process, there had been nobody inside.

“…they have incredibly long root systems too, so they work really well with my magic. As far as I can tell, they act kind of like jellyfish and just float around scooping up whatever nutrients happen to come in contact with their roots.”

As Balam and Andre continued to excitedly talk about the plant mages newest toy, Asher asked Xavier a question of her own.

“Did the boss drop anything good?”

“Eh, mostly more eel leather,” their resident pessimist responded. “We also got the things stomach, which could be purposed into some kind of highly heat resistance container or even enchanted to act as a perpetual source of lava. Nothing anybody in Green Dawn can really do with it though, so its another thing for the sell pile. We did also get five scrolls of ‘Magmatic Barrier’, which might come in useful in the later boss fights. Otherwise, again, they’ll be worth a decent amount when we sell them.”

#

Asher was nervous about the next boss fight. Mostly because she wasn’t going to be very useful. The next round of combat was usually against something called a Magmatic Slug. The creatures were a type of elemental, or maybe a golem. Either way they were magically animated lava in roughly the shape of a slug two or so feet long.

One on its own wouldn’t have been much of a challenge, but the boss was a swarm of the creatures. Hundreds upon hundreds of blobs of living lava that would emerge from the lake in a massive tide, slowly advancing until they covered every inch of the island. According to one adventurer team who had decided to simply escape the creatures with flight spells and slowly work their way through the horde, there were enough to cover the island three or four deep.

As long as you were on the ground there would be nowhere to hide.

Due to their nature, they were basically immune to Asher’s spells. No nervous system to fry. No heart to stop. No water to vaporize or flesh to burn. Which meant she was basically helpless since she certainly didn’t know how to fly. Worse than being useless, she was a burden that needed to be protected through this next round.

That was fine though, it was what teams were for. Where one member fell behind, another could pick up the slack. And in this case that other person would be Veronika. Her ice magic usually had difficulty in the dungeon, but it was the perfect weapon for this challenge. Even if the heat would melt her ice, all the warmth had to come from somewhere. And such small bits of lava were a non-issue for her freeze solid.

Veronika would be using a number of large, area of effect spells to rapidly wipe out chunks of the swarm and establish a beachhead against the incoming swarm. She would then proceed to wipe out vast swathes of the things while the others played defense. Asher herself was on mana potion duty, as the ice mage would be expending vast amount of mana. It was her job to make sure the woman never ran out. They fully expected to use about a quarter of their supply of mana potions in this one fight.

That was fine though, they had made their purchases with this in mind. They should still have plenty of supplies to see them through the rest of the bosses. Resources existed to be spent when needed. Hopefully none of the other fights would come down to the contributions of a single member of the team.

#

Asher couldn’t think of anything but the pain of her lightly burned skin, pink and tender like she’d spent too long in the sun, and exhaustion after the fight was finally over. They’d been wrong about what they were fighting. It hadn’t been a swarm of small lava elementals. It had been a single giant one, shaped roughly like one of the Certilia Matriarchs but maybe forty percent bigger.

She looked down at the trail of destruction the battle had carved from the coastline. Shattered pillars, rivulets of cooled slag, and more than a dozen craters. The Magma Scale Certilia hadn’t necessarily been stronger than the swarm, but they’d been less prepared for it. It was supposed to be a really rare opponent for this stage. Thankfully, they’d at least put a little thought into what to do if this had happened.

Through the initial controlled panic of seeing the massive creature break the waves of lave, Sahar had taken command with no issues. She, Andre, and Sahar had taken the lead in distracting the creature. Slowing it down and providing a target while the Xavier and Veronika did the real work. Balam had been assigned as a go between, keeping the two groups in communication.

While Andre and Sahar built barriers of roots and glowing, golden light, Asher had stayed at the edge of her range. She’d blasted the creature with Lightning Bolt after Lightning Bolt. Enchanted the ground with her Electropulse spell to knock it back and confuse it as it slowly advanced. She’d even briefly used the Blaze Charm to create a barrier of her own and give Sahar a much-needed break.

While the three of them were doing that, Xavier and Veronika had been rapidly repairing and rebuilding their fortress from the previous fight. The worst of the damage, the toppled tower, had been repaired in the hours after the fight. Anticipating the swarm of enemies that was to come, however, they hadn’t bothered to patch the holes in the wall or finish the missing side. Instead, the two of them had set various traps throughout the island to help slow and destroy the magmatic slugs.

Recognizing they needed a defensible location with the change in opponents, they had used the time Asher, Andre, and Sahar bought to rapidly finish the repairs. It had been costing them more in mana than they would have liked, but that was alright. With the new enemy, not all the mana potions would end up going to Veronika.

“Nice job on the fortress you two. You put that together really fast, all things considered,” She complimented the two of them as she reviewed the fight in her head.

The team was eating dinner, bathing in the glow of a hard-fought victory. She wasn’t the only one who looked like she fallen asleep in a tanning bed, and everyone was moving slowly and tenderly. Sahar had cast a healing spell on all of them, but she didn’t want to overburden their body with too much healing in too little time. If they needed a lot of healing tomorrow and the day after, even the smaller stuff now would build up. Instead, she had cast a spell that would slowly repair the damage over the next eight hours or so, keeping even minimal strain from building up.

“Aye, not my best work, but it was serviceable. You deserve some compliments yourself. Finding a new way to apply your lightning magic again an opponent usually considered immune to it.”

Asher smiled, she was rather proud of her performance. Xavier had had a surprise of his own though, and she was quick to repeat the congratulations. The two of them had managed to be far more useful than either had been hoping.

They’d decided to carry on with the main part of the plan once the defenses were in place. Veronika had worked to freeze large chunks of the creature, doing her best to slowly solidify the boss. Unfortunately, the greater mass meant her ice magic was far less effective than they had hoped. Even worse, the internal heat would slowly remelt the parts Veronika had already solidified.

Seeing that, Xavier had unveiled a new technique. Apparently he had been adapting a few of Veronika’s freezing spells to work with earth magic, allowing him to join her in freezing the creature. He hadn’t been confident of his ability to use the new spell on multiple targets, but against one he had been ready to try.

Unfortunately, even working together the two had only been barely out pacing the creature’s recovery. That was when Asher had had her own little epiphany. She had thought back to when she caused a stone to explode by hitting it with lightning, vaporizing water that had been trapped inside. With that as inspiration, she had begun overcharging lightning and blasting each freshly frozen part of the elemental.

The result had been large chunks of the beast exploding off of it, not only denying it the chance to reassimilate those parts but also staggering the thing. Knocking it off its feet and throwing it to the side as the concussive force did far more than the lightning itself.

“We can’t forget about Andre either!” She spoke up happily, clapping the big man on the back.

Andre had been vital in his own way. More than once the monster had tried to make for the edge of the island, assumedly looking to replace its lost mass. Andre had been able to pin it down, to at least some degree. Enough that it couldn’t get anywhere while being frozen and having chunks blown off at least.

In the end, it had been a slow, slow process. They’d managed to destroy it though, eventually removing enough mass that a glowing orange orb was revealed. Balam had struck the final blow, snatching the core from the remaining magma and crushing it.

They hadn’t looted the thing yet, but Asher was looking forward to something good after all the stress the dungeon had just put them through.

Hope it drops something I can actually use.