Clyde POV
That was a stupid mistake. I let the first room convince me that this dungeon didn't want to hurt us. As a result, none of us really had our guard up. I paid for that mistake with a piece of my ear. Now though, we know that only the first room is safe. Still after finding all those coins and especially the meat, I want to try and get as far as we can. The others seem to agree with me. I think they're just hoping to not have to share that little bit of meat. The coins are nice don't get me wrong but for right now the real prize is the meat.
We eventually manage to make our way into the next room. This time I'm ready for the sneak attack and manage to catch the little critter midair with my sword slicing it in two and getting a shower of blood and guts for my trouble. That's when I hear Lily cry out in pain. Turning around I can already see Lily casting healing magic on a bite sized gash in her leg. What I don't see is the rat that did it. I had thought keeping Lily in the back would keep her safe. I guess it depends on the situation. Mostly I guess it depends on our opponent's ability to get behind us.
I don't even really need to order the others to fall back and protect Lily. I can already see Cole and Darrel both heading that way. We don't have to wait long for the second rat to make another move. This time the target seems to be Darrel, but he manages to slap it away using a bit of conjured water. Right towards Cole who is all too happy to introduce the menace to the sharp end of his sword.
After waiting around for a few minutes just in case this room had other surprises, we gather up the loot we had earned. Another chunk of rat meat thankfully and a piece of low-quality leather. If I remember correctly, I believe they said the quality of things like meat, leather, horns, and similar loot you get is determined by the level of the creature. Which would make sense. This is just the first floor after all. Speaking of which I silently wonder how many floors this dungeon has. Aside from that we also gained and additional six copper coins. Maybe if we make it back to civilization, we can afford some actual gear.
Going into the next room we've started to learn the pattern. I hope anyway. We decided that Lily and Darrel should be in the middle of the group. Given our opponents are so small the middle of the group isn't much safer. We'll take what we can get though. Besides this way as long as we have our guard up at least me or Cole should be able to see the attack coming. Almost on cue a rat suddenly leaps down from up above. It would have landed in Lily's hair if Cole hadn't shoved her rather unceremoniously to the side while simultaneously thrusting upward with his sword completely bisecting the poor thing. Unfortunately, this momentary distraction allowed another rat to jump down and bite me on the shoulder. at the same time a third rat ran up and bite Cole on the back of the leg.
They managed to scurry away for now. Next time they wouldn't be so lucky. A few seconds later one of them darted out from behind one of the supply crates but I managed to catch it just in time. The third rat jumped towards Darrel but was met by Cole's blade instead. By now I was pretty sure based on the previous rooms that this room only had the three rats. I wasn't going to take any chances though, so we still waited a minute before we began to collect our loot for this room. This time we got two chunks of meat and a piece of leather. That was great news as it meant we wouldn't need to share. We also got another eight copper coins.
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Before heading into the next room, we rested for a bit. This was mainly to give Lily time to heal all of our wounds as best she could. Being the leader, I insisted on being healed last. As we sat there Darrel suddenly asked, "so how old do you think this dungeon is?" "Hard to say." I responded. "Nobody has even tried to cross the sand sea in decades. It certainly shows signs of at least some level of intelligence." "What do you mean?" asked Cole. "Well," I replied holding up a coin, "This coin is clearly an attempt to lure delvers. There is also the water in the first room, and the fact that the first room has no monsters. This would indicate that it knows where it is, or at the very least understands it's in a place delver don't usually go." "Probably the only reason it doesn't have more to throw at us is precisely because of the lack of delvers." Lily added, having finished the last of the healing treatments.
With the treatments finished we headed into the next room. "Remember, this room likely has four rats." I reminded just as a rat leaped towards my face. I managed to get my sword up in time and was rewarded with rat guts spraying me in the face. At the same time Cole managed to thwart a sneak attack from behind, while Darrel swatted another one away with some more conjured water. Lily wasn't so lucky though and received a nasty bite on her butt. The fabric of her clothing likely negated at least some of the damage. Still, I can't imagine that felt very good.
The other two rats seemed to sense weakness because this time they both targeted Lily at the same time. Between me and Cole they didn't get very far, however. After that we pretty much had the pattern down, so we collected the loot while Lily tended to her wounds. We managed to get four more chunks of rat meat this time along with another eight coins. This was better than we could have hoped for. We now had enough food to actually get full. At the very least enough to stop being hungry anyway. I'm tempted to start a campfire right here and begin cooking the meat. I decide to at least wait until we are back in the first room though.
For now, I decide that we should carry on. At least one more room. Then I'll check to see how everyone is doing. While I do care about their safety I also want to get as far as we can. I also trust them to speak up if there's a problem.
The attack in this room is almost identical to the previous room. This time though Cole simply blocks the rat aimed at him while swinging at the one going after Lily. The one attacking me seem to be a higher level. It manages to dodge my first swing forcing me to sidestep its lunging attack and catch it midair where it couldn't dodge. After that the other two were quickly dealt with. We all waited nervously for the fifth rat to appear. Eventually we decided that there wasn't a fifth rat and went around collecting the loot. The loot this time consisted of four pieces of leather and another nine coins.
By the next room we again had the pattern down, or so we thought. Once again, the rat dodged my first attack forcing me to sidestep and catch it as it lunged. Unfortunately, one of the other rats after being blocked by Cole turned and bit him in the back of the leg before scurrying away. The next attack I managed to catch one leaping right at me while Cole missed the one scurrying towards him. This caused him to take a step back bumping into Darrel. In the confusion that followed Cole was rewarded with a bite on his other leg. A few minutes later it came running towards Lily. This time we were all ready for it. Darrel used water magic to slow its movement while I stepped up and finished it off.
We were rewarded with four more pieces of leather and seven more coins. As we rested, I was about to suggest we end the delve when I was suddenly interrupted by Lily celebrating. "I finally reached level 2!" She exclaimed excitedly. "I knew I was close since I had been using restoration to keep everyone going during the walk here." she explained as if that was the most common thing in the world. Suddenly something just clicked, and I realized that it was mana depletion that caused her to pass out. I didn't say anything though so as not to ruin her celebration.
After she finished healing Cole, we discussed the situation and decided it was best to end this delve here. Her mana was starting to run low from the constant healing. Not to mention the fact that her mana reserves still hadn't fully recovered yet. I made sure to grab a few of the empty supply crates on the way back to the first room. We needed something to act as firewood after all.