Derek took a gasp of air after stepping into the dungeon and stumbled forward. This had the unintended effect of pushing everyone else forward and dangerously so because of the unsheathed sword in his hand. James was further forward in the line that he was able to jump away with the grace of a cat, but the others were not so lucky.

“Hey! Careful with that sword,” Ian yelled out before sending a blast of fire towards Derek.

The blast was mostly made of heat causing the wind and fire to push Derek back hitting Wes in turn. Luckily, Wes had had his shield in his hands throughout the walk down allowing him to take the brunt of the force with it. Regardless the two of them fell into a pile on the ground.

“Come on get it together you two. Come on Derek. This is your sixth time entering a dungeon? You should know how to comfortably enter by now,” said James.

“Sorry. I can be a bit clumsy sometimes. The dungeon entrances just hit me more than most I guess.”

“Let’s just get started. Get yourself into a proper formation and start following the tunnels.”

Ian pulled Wes to the front who was joined by Derek. Together they led their group of four while James watched from a few paces behind. His job was only to watch, observe, and once they were out he would write up a report of how they did in the dungeon.

“This first floor is sewer themed and is considered one of the more disgusting floors by many. It has been speculated that like many other dungeons this one ate the land around it for its first floor. Perhaps the early settlers of this area dumped waste nearby and the dungeon that was just starting took the theme of sewage tunnels and ran with it. Even today a portion of the city’s sewage tunnels leads out of the city and seem to be absorbed by the dungeon. On this first floor, you should expect basic traps and a few fights with rats of all sizes.”

Along the circular walls, there were scratch marks and small pieces of vegetation. James examined them as the others led the march forward. A minute later he nodded and a second later everyone heard the sounds of rats.

‘It looks like they will be facing variant floor 1-b this time. A little harder but they should get through it quickly enough,’ thought James.

He had run this dungeon enough time and read through hundreds of other reports that he was able to quickly identify the slight changes the dungeon made run-to-run. Instead of changing the floor every time, it would create slightly altered maps for each floor with about two to five variations per floor. They wouldn’t change the monsters or anything as drastic as that, but it would mean traps would be placed differently and the path of tunnels changed how they were connected or blocked off. But that was for the novices to figure out.

The first pack of rats was two feet long and was covered in scrappy armor. For weapons, though they only had long claws and teeth which was perfect for Ian.

Mana surged around him for a moment as he prepared his spell. Derek was already swinging his sword down on two of the rats when a fireball shot between his two teammates and into the rats. Ian prepared his next shot. Derek on the other hand was surprised by the fire brushing his leg and took a step to the side causing his sword swing to only hit one of the two rats.

Derek stumbled back and tried to awkwardly bring his sword back up, but it was too unwieldy. He was just not used to the sword and the space for him in the sewer was too small. Ian just picked up the slack and helped finish them off with Naomi while Wes put his shield down and let the rats funnel towards the others.

A minute later Ian had finished off the rest of the rats. The rats dissolved into mana as they left leaving nothing behind.

“What the fuck were you doing back there!” Ian shouted next to Derek’s ear. “I can’t be the main one to deal with these rats. I don’t have the mana for it. Especially if this continues to happen on other floors. And Wes. You can’t just stand there funneling the rats towards this useless oaf. Your legs were shaking for crying out loud. Bash them next time with your shield or something.”

He let out a frustrated groan and turned to Naomi. She was currently on her knees picking up the knives she had thrown into the rats.

“You did great with leftover ones babe. Keep throwing those knives,” he said while looking down at her.

Naomi just got up and scowled.

“Let’s just get going. I want to finish this dungeon quickly as much as you do.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Once Naomi had grabbed the last of her knives the group got back into position and continued onward.

Naomi followed along with the group and pointed out the small tripwires and softened ground that led to pitfall traps and spikes. Derek led the charge and was more ready to fight when the next pack of rats came around.

Derek came down on the rats with a step forward and a downward swing. He bisected the closest rats and was more ready when he felt the arrow fly by him. Wes still shakily held his shield up but was pushing the rats away if only slightly.

Ian hung back not wanting to waste any of his mana with a smile on his face. Derek took another swing at the rats killing the last two with one blow. What little armor they had on didn’t matter to his blade.

“See that wasn’t so bad,” said Ian with a smirk, “Now let’s just do that moving forward and we can get through this floor and more fairly quickly and without me having to waste anymore mana.”

This time Naomi had avoided throwing any more daggers so there was nothing to pick up. To this sight, Ian was a little saddened but only for a moment. He had more important things to do such as shepherding his team through the dungeon floors.

In Ian’s mind, he had almost forgotten the initial incident in the dungeon when he made a mistake. James watched from behind as Naomi led the others around a pressure plate, but he was not as lucky. Instead of alerting everyone, Naomi kept quiet. There was a brief click and then a scream of pain. James just watched and made note of the non-fatal mistakes the team was making.

“Whoops. It seems I missed one,” said Naomi nonchalantly.

Ian rolled to the ground and clutched his bleeding leg. His lower leg had been impaled by a wooded stake hidden originally by a grate in the sewer wall. Ian looked up at her and knew what had happened under her watch.

“You bitch. You were supposed to spot the traps for us and disarm them if we can‘t go around them. Now we are going to waste a health potion,” he said between grunts of pain.

Derek dropped his sword and began pouring half a potion into Ian’s mouth.

“I think that is the point,” said Naomi, “I like seeing you in pain and the faster you choke on those potions the quicker we can get out of here. I know you found a way to force me on your team even if I can’t prove it.”

She spat on the ground next to the two boys as Derek stepped away. Ian jumped up as well with a wince ready to start a fight.

“Stop,” said James finally ready to be done with the team’s infighting. He had already made a note to mark their teamwork score a zero. “I don’t want to deal with fighting amongst yourself. You can do that once you are outside but if you want to continue right now then we can end this dungeon run on the first floor.”

“Whatever. If she doesn’t want to do her job then Wes will have to take over if I think something is off. His shield should protect him from most traps.”

“Only if you think it is best. But as I have said before. If you run out of potions or have a teammate unable to effectively do their job then we are out of here. Your choice.”

Ian’s decision was ultimately made for him. He was shoved to the back of the line by Derek when they started their march again. He continued to skulk and scowl as he limped for another minute while the healing finished.

The next pack they ran into was cleared much quicker than before and with fewer problems as well. Derek finally got more than one swing in but not many before Ian and Naomi finished the rest of. Wes was still uncomfortable with his shield by James’s estimation. Wes to his credit did hit some rats and was doing a bit more than before but flinched every time. James also noticed that Wes did have some magic available to him as a tank but was barely using it to his benefit.

The group had no more problems or incidents as they followed the path of the boss. On the first floor, there was no confusing maze or blocked-off paths. It was as simple as could be. There were no problems with the traps either. Naomi kept them safe from spikes and pitfall traps.

They turned another corner and saw torches lighting up an archway into the boss room. They all paused and looked at the carved archway that was unlike the regular sewer walls. The four of them took their next steps slowly as they entered the first boss room of the dungeon.

The mother rat’s fangs dripped with poison. It turned to face them as they entered. Ian immediately fired off a few cheap shots to the side of its face and ears. It chittered and shrieked, and it moved towards them. The rat was as tall as James and just as big around.

Wes shook as he held up his shield before he was pushed aside by the rat. The boss area was larger than the main sewers allowing Derek to swing his sword around albeit not very skillfully. He hacked at the rat but only got as far as the armor. His swings weren’t precise enough to hit the seams of the armor.

Naomi continued to fire arrows from the back. Her arrows were replenished with a bit of mana. Ian continued to move around the rat to get to a better position. Each time it tried to spin around it counterbalanced itself by shifting its tail. It was one of these times that it spun around and hit Derek.

He was in the middle of a swing when the tail hit him in the side. His balance mid-swing was already off so he went sliding on the ground leaving his sword by the rat.

“Get up,” shouted Ian, “I’ve burned away most of the armor around its neck. I need you to just finish it off.”

Derek wobbled a bit standing up and shook his head. He looked for where his sword was left behind and ran. The rat turned towards him and swiped at him. It just barely missed as he ducked under and grabbed hold of his sword. A moment later Derek felt his feet go out from under him. Derek went sliding once again this time with his sword.

Derek felt a pounding in his head but kept going. He charged at the rat and aimed. There was a thunk as the sword stopped moving. The rat shook back and forth but the blade with stuck in it. Derek’s grip loosened and he was flung off and thrown under the rat. Before the rat could pounce on him in his undefended self. Derek heard a squeal and then the clattering of his sword as the rat exploded into motes of mana. They had done it. The first floor was finished.