I exited the portal, finding myself on a game trail leading through a lush forest. The trees looked to be mostly evergreens, pines and spruces, with a smattering of birch. The trees weren't closely packed, and brown needles littered the ground.

Razorbeak's caravan dungeons were known for taking the landscape around it into consideration when conjuring the extradimensional space inside, and it appeared as though that was still a feature. This was a boreal forest, like one you would find in the north if a magical blizzard wasn't constantly on the rampage.

Based on the cool, but not uncomfortable, air, I guessed that it was around springtime in the dungeon currently. Feeling the cold, I reached for my chest with both hands. Still no jacket, still no equipment. Just the white linen shirt, brown trousers, and black shoes. Well, at least the shoes were mildly comfortable. Taking in my surroundings was instinctual, but what came next was pure rage.

“What the fuck,” I muttered, unable to help myself. My blood pounded through my head as anger took over. “What the fuck was all that?!”

The interaction with Himia played through my mind. My gear was gone, there was no exit in sight, and apparently if there was then the damn secretary could just remove it? All sorts of regulations, guidelines, and codes were being broken here willy-nilly.

And then just casually changing classes and subjecting people to illegal magic? Himia was clearly incredibly dangerous but she still answered to this Dungeon Master guy, so how bad was he? Seducing Dragons, casually sending dangerous dungeons way off their mark with no concern for the societies they pass through, and tinkering with things that ought not to be tinkered with. Willy-nilly!

“I bet I would have gotten through to her with a less diplomatic method,” I said to a nearby tree, kicking at its trunk. “But no, Brackenhorst says ‘be more diplomatic, Badger,’ and ‘that’s the fourth dungeon owner to complain about you in the past month, what are you telling them?’ Next time I see that dwarf, I don’t even care that he’s my boss, I’m going to show him the kind of diplomacy that involves sticking my foot right up-“

Needles and pine cones cracking caught my attention, and I turned to see a moose coming towards me. It was staring straight at me before it stopped around forty feet away. A yellow aura outlined it, which I didn't understand. What was the purpose of that? Was yellow the color symbolizing Moose's magical affinity for holy energy?

"Moose?" I called. My rage died down as it was replaced by no small amount of shame at my next words. "Where are Ferrisdae and Cojisto?"

The moose bellowed at me.

"Great," I sighed. I began walking towards the moose. "Of course they didn't offer the ability to understand the language of the moosefolk. That would be too easy, wouldn't it? Here’s an alleged upgrade, Inspector, but you can't talk to moose. Or, Moose."

As I got closer, the moose lowered his head and began stomping. "What's wrong?" I asked. "Do you need Cojisto around to behave yourself?"

The yellow aura around the creature turned orange, and then changed to red. I had only closed about half the distance before the moose bellowed and charged at me.

I took a defensive stance, and then immediately noticed the error of my ways. I didn't have any of my items, the chances of me being able to stop a charging moose were-

The moose hit me straight in the chest with its antlers. I was sent flying, the wind knocked from my lungs and at least a few of my ribs felt like they were broken. I rolled across the ground, finally coming to a stop against a pine tree. Despite the blow and the tumble, it wasn't as painful as I expected.

The moose snorted and stomped, then lowered its head again. Standing up, I began to shuffle towards the other side of the tree to deny the moose its charge lane while looking for any thing that could be used as a weapon. Nothing immediately looked like it would work, but my field of view was limited since I refused to take my eyes off of the enemy.

Apparently, this was all it needed to resume aggression. It began charging at me. I spun around the tree, and a flash of white and brown passed me by on the other side.

I turned to see Cojisto facing off against the charging moose. His aura was blue, and I saw that his arms were covered in rippling purple energy. There wasn't time to think about that, though. He had positioned himself directly in front of the charging moose.

Cojisto didn't flinch, at least not that I could see, and reached out for the antlers. The purple energy around his arms also appeared around his legs, and he slid backwards instead of getting knocked down.

The charging moose, head down, was stopped in its tracks.

"Don't make this difficult," Cojisto said, his voice strained with effort. "You are not the first moose I have wrestled."

The moose bellowed, pushing against the unmoving man. All it managed to do was kick up detritus from the forest floor.

"Okay, don’t say I didn’t I warn you."

Cojisto yelled as he turned the moose's head, planting its antler in the ground. He sidestepped, grabbing the other side of its antlers and tugged. The moose, thrown off balance, fell to the ground. Letting go, Cojisto punched his fallen enemy in the chest before backing off.

The moose laid there, panting, before scrambling to its feet and running off in the direction it came. Cojisto turned to me and flashed me a grin. "Such wonderful creatures, aren't they?" he asked jovially.

"That… wasn't Moose, was it?" I asked. Testing my wounds, I gingerly touched my chest only to suck in a pained breath. It felt like it had hit my whole chest with its antler. There was going to be a massive bruise that I wasn't looking forward to.

"Best not to touch that," Cojisto said. "I'm an expert in moose related injuries, and you took a really nasty blow there."

"Just assessing," I muttered, trying not to snap. He had just come to my aid and I didn't doubt his claim about injuries related to moose. I shouldn't be angry at him. "It's not as bad as I think it should have been."

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Cojisto nodded. "You are surprisingly durable, then," he said. "And lucky I came along. There were moose tracks, so I followed them, because I was hoping they would lead me to Moose."

"So that wasn't Moose, just some random moose?" I asked again. Once I was done prodding my wound, I took a closer look at Cojisto. He was wearing an outfit identical to my own. They must have stolen his gear, too.

"Heavens no, of course not," Cojisto said, his tone implying that the difference was obvious. "He wasn't nearly big enough to be Moose, and his antlers were still coming in from the winter shed. That's why I could throw him around so easily."

"Okay, not Moose, just a moose,” I said before eyeing the Human critically. “Why is your aura blue? And what's going on with that purple energy?"

"Blue aura?" Cojisto asked, raising an eyebrow. He looked at his arms. "I don't know, I can't see any aura."

"There was a red one on the moose," I said. "You didn't see that, either?"

"No, it just looked like an ordinary bull moose to me," he said with a frown. "Do you have a concussion? You got tossed awfully hard."

"My head is fine," I said, this time I did snap. But I reminded myself again that he had helped and was just concerned. "What about the energy?"

"That's a power granted by what Himia said my class update was," Cojisto explained. "Arcane Wrestler, she said, with a magical affinity for force. It's all pretty intuitive, and I can use it for a variety of offensive and defensive purposes, though I'm still getting used to it. It takes a lot out of me."

I nodded absently. The… Information Elemental has said that about Cojisto's affinity. “You seem really calm,” I noted. “Doesn’t what Himia did piss you off?”

Cojisto looked at the sky for a moment in thought, and then shrugged. “No, not really,” he admitted. “More power is nice, you know?”

“Sure, but not like this. Nothing about this warrants concern to you?” I asked, incredulously. “Like losing our gear, or the invasive magic performed on us, or literally anything else?”

The big, dumb idiot shook his head. “No, it’s a dungeon,” Cojisto said. “So, just have to treat it like one, right? Go with the flow, roll with the punches. We’ll make it out.”

I stared at the Human. Adventurers were a different breed, but this guy had to be one of the most laid back morons I had ever met. Instead of arguing and trying to educate him on what was undoubtedly a terrible series of events we had been put under, I changed the subject. There was no use teaching a wall.

"We need to meet up with Ferrisdae and talk about what’s going on," I said.

"Ferrisdae and Moose both," Cojisto corrected, emphasizing Moose. I rolled my eyes. "Do you know where we are?"

I shook my head. "I do not," I admitted. "I think it's some approximation of what the area the obelisk is in would look like without the blizzard, but most of the records from this area were lost so I'm not sure if there are any cities around."

"I did see tracks belonging to people earlier," Cojisto claimed. "They were heading east, so there could be something there."

"I guess that's as good a way as any," I sighed. I glanced up at the sky to tell the sun's location. Unfortunately, it was high in the sky, no way of telling which way it was going except by waiting.

"East is this way," Cojisto said, interrupting my thoughts. "I don't think Moose would have gone that way, but Ferry probably did.

"Alright, then let's get moving." I began walking in Cojisto's offered direction, wincing with each step from the pain. I never thought I'd wish to find a magic healing moose at any point in my life, but here we were.

After a few seconds of silence, Cojisto spoke. "So, Badger, where do you hail from?"

I sighed. No matter how far we would travel, this was going to feel like a long trek.

******

Cojisto had a disposition just as sunny as Ferrisdae’s, and while we walked he took to singing. Faintly, so as to not attract unwanted attention, but what I did manage to pick up was mostly nonsense with no real melody. Just taking note about things around us when he felt like saying them. My patience, already threadbare, was running dangerously thin.

It also didn't help that the extradimensional space was incredibly large. Dungeons didn't usually form on open ground, but even the ones that mirrored reality like I suspected this one did would be at most a mile wide.

We had been walking for nearly two hours, and Cojisto stopping to collect herbs and plants every so often didn't help. I know that my legs were short and I was injured, but we definitely walked more than a mile. I had no doubts about that.

The first thing we heard was the sound of a hammer banging rhythmically on metal. Then, the sounds of men shouting, followed by dogs barking. We crested a hill to see a large wooden palisade before us.

"See? I told you there were people in the east," Cojisto said confidently.

I didn't say anything in return; talking with Cojisto was only going to exacerbate my headache. Instead, I gave him a nod and started traveling around the palisade to find the entrance.

The logs used to build the wall had seen better days, and something caught my eye. I stopped to investigate. The logs were splintered, dented, and gouged as if something had been trying to break through. I glanced at the ground to see if there were any tracks. The needles littering the ground were snapped, I noticed.

Brushing them away with my foot, I revealed a huge footprint large enough for Cojisto to lay in. Instead of something Humanoid, it was bird-like in nature with three toes facing towards the wall and one facing backwards.

“It looks like a giant bird came through here,” I said, then added, “Well, that or a Dragon. It’s really surprising how similar their foot structure is to each other.” I turned to face Cojisto. He wasn’t paying any attention to me, however, he was looking upwards at the wall.

“I agree that whatever it was is really, very big,” Cojisto confirmed, pointing towards the top of the wall.

I looked up to see that the top of the palisade had been utterly destroyed. It had to be at least thirty feet high, but the top of each log making up this portion of the wall had been destroyed, resulting in the wall being a few feet lower in this area. I searched for more tracks, but only managed to find one more footprint next to the original. The creature that left them hadn’t come from or gone anywhere, but if it could fly and land, then why did it bother with the wall?

“I think we need to head inside and get some answers,” I said, and we began to walk around the palisade once more.

“I agree,” Cojisto said. “I’d like to know if we’re going to be fighting an abnormally large drake or a giant chicken.”

“Who says we’re going to be fighting it?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “This isn’t our problem.”

“It could be, though?” Cojisto countered. “This is not like any dungeon I’ve come across before. It’s large, and we traveled for a long time, and we have no idea where the dungeon boss is. What if it’s a giant chicken?”

“It’s not going to be a giant chicken,” I spat. If I were honest with myself, those words were hesitant. Cojisto had a point; I hadn’t seen a dungeon like this before either, and I knew I had a lot more experience than he did. “If anything, it’ll be one of Razorbeak’s Avian henchmen running the show. If they could somehow grow in size, then their feet would look like that.”

Cojisto frowned, and then released a heavy sigh. “I understand your words,” he said. “But I’m disappointed that our chances of fighting a thirty foot tall chicken are still very low. Could you imagine how great that would be?”

“Cojisto, I don’t want to fight a thirty foot anything, why would I want to specifically fight a thirty foot tall chicken?” I asked.

“Because it would be amazing!”

I ran my hand over my face. We really need to find Ferrisdae, and quickly.