Falcon held a fist up from where she crouched. She then opened her hand wide, showing all five fingers, then two fingers raised, followed by a closed fist.

The team kept their heads low and did their best to move silently to her location.

Forge marveled at the simplicity of the hand gestures they had learned from the Guild. It was one of only four classes they had taken as a team.

A raised fist to get their attention. A finger for each member of the team or all five for the entire team, then two fingers to indicate quick stealth, and a fist to end.

The process required that at least one member of the team always had eyes on the scout, but it didn’t really matter because you never split the party.

The Guild instructors had drilled that into them during their training. They would succeed or die together.

Lioness led the group as they made their way to the ranger as quietly as they could.

Gideon brought up the rear and soon the three of them were crouched behind an outcropping behind their scout.

Falcon studied them with a critical eye.

“Forge, make a note that the party needs a point in Stealth,” she said.

Gideon and Lioness exchanged looks.

“I think I moved pretty well, considering I’m wearing more armor than you three,” Forge said.

He made to step forward, but his back foot had pinned his cloak to the floor of the cavern, jerking him backwards to fall on his backside.

Gideon placed his gloved hand between his teeth to stifle his laughter while Lioness raised an eyebrow and grinned at him.

“A point in Stealth, got it,” Forge said.

Having reclaimed his footing and adjusted the weighted ends of his cloak, he scanned the area.

It was the first room of the Tier One dungeon.

The rough stone walls provided a myriad of hiding places for them, as well as potential cover for any monsters.

While the glowing blue fungi on the walls provided scant light for his party, it was as bright as daylight to his masked eyes.

“There’s some sort of pit in the middle of the room,” he said.

“Do you see anything moving?” Falcon asked.

Slowly straightening to get a better view, Forge saw water just a few feet below the pit’s edge.

“It’s filled with water,” he began, then movement caught his eye.

At first, he thought the creature was a snake, but as more of its body came into view, he grinned beneath his mask.

“There’s a goose,” he said.

The others stared at him.

“A goose? Really?” Gideon asked incredulously.

Forge shrugged.

“Yeah, it appears to be a normal goose.”

“I know this is a Tier One dungeon, but that’s just ridiculous,” Lioness said.

Gideon frowned in thought.

“No. We need to take it seriously. While it could be a normal goose that lives in the dungeon, odds are it’s a monster and has some sort of trick up its proverbial sleeve.”

He turned to the ranger.

“Move up until you get an eye on it, then shoot it.”

Falcon nodded and pointed at another outcropping of rock, then started moving towards it, staying low to the ground.

Forge watched the ranger move and marveled at how stealth worked.

The others had mentioned that she seemed to blend into the scenery as she moved, but to Forge’s eye, she stood out like anyone else as she traversed the floor.

Her movement was nearly silent, so regardless of his ability to see her, he wouldn’t hear her at all unless he was paying close attention.

Increasing her Stealth skill further would make her nearly unnoticeable unless someone had a high enough Perception skill. A skill no one in the party currently had.

Falcon reached the rock outcropping and held a fist up, then dropped it.

She slowly released the leather straps that secured her bow to her back and drew three arrows from the quiver at her waist.

With one arrow strung, she held two more in her fingers, ready for follow-up shots.

Falcon breathed in deeply as she pulled the string back, bringing the arrow up to eye height.

A pause. The arrow fired, and she dropped her hand, knocking another arrow and bringing it to firing position.

Forge took his eyes off the archer and turned to the goose.

The arrow had pierced its head, and its body floated in the small pond.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Angry honks came from the pit, and a moment later, an explosion of geese erupted from the water.

The geese had launched themselves up to the cavern floor, their red glowing eyes scanning the area.

An arrow went through the head of another goose, and the flock turned towards Falcon, wings outstretched.

A raised wing deflected the third arrow, and the goose honked its rage.

Forge fired his Firebolt spell at the goose closest to Falcon and could see the blue light reflected in the feathers of their metallic wings.

The Tier Two spell struck the goose in a shower of blue fire, ending its life and drawing the attention of the other geese.

He summoned his mace to his hand and charged.

Gideon and Lioness flanked him as he ran forward, gritting his teeth against the drain of the spell.

The angry honking of the geese intensified as they spread their wings out, launching bladed feathers at the trio.

“Everyone, down!” he yelled, as he threw himself between his team and the incoming missiles.

Two of the feathered blades struck him, one bouncing off his shoulder pauldron, the other piercing his scaled armor, wedging itself into his stomach.

Ignoring the bladed feather, he closed the distance quickly and struck out with his mace at the nearest goose.

The heavy blow from his bar mace struck the goose’s blocking wing with the sound of metal striking metal, but the power of the blow was enough to push the wing down and crush the head of the goose, taking it out of the fight.

He saw another goose raise its wings to launch more blades and swung down at it.

This time, the goose angled its wing against his attack, causing his mace to slide down towards the floor.

He was off-balance and wide open, when the long blade of Gideon flashed by him and neatly beheaded the goose.

Geese swarmed Forge, as he swung his mace in a steady diagonal pattern, putting the geese on the defensive and allowing Gideon and Lioness to strike at them with their swords.

Like this, they moved through the flock, and soon piles of the angry avians littered the floor.

Forge tried to catch his breath. It had only been a few minutes, but it felt like he had just run a marathon.

“Well, that was easy,” Gideon said, working to get his own breathing under control.

“Lie.”

The word came unbidden to Forge’s mind, and he started.

That didn’t sound like Cinder.

“Cinder, did you hear that?” he sent the dragon.

“Yes. Weird.”

With the adrenaline wearing off, Forge felt the soreness in his joints and muscles, which slowly faded thanks to his passive regeneration.

He suddenly realized the depth of his injuries, as pain flared from where the feathers had struck, and wings had battered him.

“Hold still,” Lioness said.

She turned him towards her and began pulling out the blades that had pierced his armor.

The wounds left behind burned as he watched her drop the four feathered blades into a pile.

Gideon went to check on Falcon, and Lioness gave him a warm smile.

“It’s a good thing your armor slowed these down. I bet they would have gone clean through otherwise,” she said.

She stared at his mirrored face and frowned.

“You know, I have a really hard time reading you with your mask on. What’s your health at?” she asked.

Forge checked his System screen.

“Six out of Ten,” he said.

She nodded.

“Passive healing is incredible, isn’t it? You should probably raise that when you get a chance, if you plan to be the party’s shield.”

Forge nodded and looked for a place to sit down.

Deciding on the floor, he stretched his legs out and felt the itching of his body knitting itself back together.

The others joined him, and other than some soreness, they were all uninjured.

Forge peered around the small battlefield, spotting many of the geese with arrows protruding from their heads, necks, and bodies.

Removing his mask, he turned to the ranger, who had sat herself down and was checking her remaining arrows.

“Nice shooting! Were you able to move back behind us?” he asked.

Falcon nodded.

“Just like we trained. Once you got their attention, I moved back behind you three and took shots as I could.”

Lioness grinned.

“Not as much fun as hunting bandits, but still enjoyable.”

“Fun or not, I think we learned some things. Forge, when you were taking damage, did you remember you could request healing?” Gideon asked.

Forge nodded.

“I did, but it’s hard to gauge how much damage I’m taking during combat. We need a way for Lioness to monitor our vitals.”

Lioness made a face.

“Maybe once I raise my cleric tier, but for now, I have no way of knowing, other than what I can see.”

“We need to get a party stone,” Gideon said.

Falcon snorted in reply.

“We talked about that. They cost 10,000 gold minimum, or more if we buy it outside of the Guild.”

They needed more money. Even after they had sold Forge’s treasures, they had only netted 4000 gold. Though they had kept the scrolls for the time being.

While a princely sum by his estimates, it didn’t come close to what they needed to purchase enchanted equipment.

“One thing at a time. That money is going towards a place for us in the city,” Lioness said.

“Potions, new runes for our weapons and armor, enchanted items that don’t require binding. All of that will come in time. For now, we need to work out how to survive without it,” she said.

“Speaking of money. Let’s see what we can get from these monsters,” Forge said, standing and checking his armor.

The holes in his scalemail had already mended themselves, and even the scuffs to the hard plates had returned to a polished finish.

“I need to collect as many of my arrows as possible,” Falcon said, looking around.

“Don’t pull them out. Wait for Forge to loot the creatures first,” Gideon cautioned.

Walking up to the nearest goose, Forge placed his hand on the creature and focused on his Loot skill.

The body crumbled to dust, and he peered around to see if they had received anything.

There was nothing. Wondering if he had made a mistake, he checked his System messages.

System Message: Tier 1 Apocalypse Goose Fledgling Looted! You Receive Two Reagents. Two Steel Feathers. Two Portions Meat. One Tier 1 Monster Core.

He checked around again, then looked in his ring. All the looted items were, in fact, stored safely.

He gave his team a thumbs up.

“Two reagents, two feathers, two cuts of meat, and a monster core.”

Gideon whistled.

“Not bad! I’d say taking the Dungeoneering class was well worth it.”

He turned to the team.

“Are you sure I shouldn’t also take the Dungeoneering class instead of the Cooking class?”

Lioness patted him on the shoulder.

“Not a chance. You can take the skill normally like the rest of us, Mr. Chef.”

Falcon nodded seriously.

“I don’t think you understand the importance of the Cooking skill in a dungeon. It could mean the difference between life and death.”

Shrugging, the swordsman bent over and picked up one of the bladed feathers that Lioness had pulled out of Forge.

“Should we collect these?” he asked.

Forge took a feather and attempted to store it in his ring, but the ring wouldn’t accept it.

“I can’t store it. I guess it’ll get reabsorbed into the dungeon,” he said.

Falcon studied a feather, then dropped it to the cavern floor.

“This is why the Guild insists that only those with the Dungeoneering skill can cull the dungeons. It’s too much waste otherwise.”

Thinking back to his time in his previous dungeon run, Forge agreed.

“I can only imagine what I would have gotten the first time If I’d known.”

Taking charge, Gideon looked around the enormous cavern and sighed before turning back to Forge.

“After you finish looting the bodies, take a walk with Falcon and see if you can spot any traps or treasure.”

Patting Lioness on the shoulder, he gave her a self-depreciating grin.

“I think you and I are rather useless at the moment.”

Smiling, the cleric reached out and laid her hands on Forge and Falcon’s shoulders.

Golden light spread out from her hands and the pair gave her an appreciative smile as her spell revitalized them.

Gideon nodded.

“Yeah. Okay. Just me then, right?”

The party laughed, a much-needed release after the tense battle.

“Just think, the next time we’re in a dungeon, you can cook us up some monster steaks, and be the most important member of the party,” Forge said, replacing his mask.

“I’ll just be standing here out of the way until then,” the swordsman said.

The party laughed and got to work. One room down, and many more monsters ahead.

Dungeons were infinitely better with a party, Forge thought.