A clockwork chime rang out, and flames erupted at the back of the workshop as pipes began leaking flammable gas, igniting on the numerous open flames scattered throughout the room. A steady stream of warm air, reeking of sulfur and chemicals, blew toward them from the growing inferno.

As the team stared at the conflagration, stunned momentarily, the clockwork started up again. They scrambled to get away from the firestorm that would soon engulf the entire level.

Weylan dropped to the floor, using his shadow magic to scan for traps, quickly marking triggers with smears of glowing honey Selvara had handed him earlier.

Selvara checked the experiments on their way and found some really nasty surprises that took all of the knowledge she’d gotten from the Alchemy skill to disarm. She wasn’t used to checking her leveling information regularly. This time she took a look at the last ones.

Skill increased: Alchemy (Layman II)

…

Skill increased: Alchemy (Apprentice II)

Whoa! She’d crossed a whole tier while in this one dungeon? That was a ludicrous leveling speed, even considering she was using it non-stop under pressure since entering the floor. Probably only possible because she was somehow still feeding off Malvorik’s still higher skill. What did he have… Master II?

Pity she had no time to reflect on it. She looked at her spell list to check if anything had changed there too.

Skill increased: Shock Grip (Journeyman I)

Choose Journeyman skill feat: …

Skill increased: Frost Breath (Journeyman I)

Choose Journeyman skill feat: …

Didn’t Weylan mention he’d reached the next tier in Sword Staff? They forgot to discuss that while resting. But, apart from sleeping, sharing the loot, and checking weapons and armor, there had hardly been any time. There wasn’t any time now, but if she could get some upgrade that really improved her spells…

She quickly scanned the list for Shock Grip.

Bright Shock (Electric discharge causes blinding flare effect.)

Booming Shock (Electric discharge causes loud deafening thunder effect)

Far Strike (Range increased from touch to one step)

Stunning Shock (Chance of stunning target for a few seconds. Chance depends on Constitution of target.)

Reanimating Shock (Chance to awaken unconscious target. Causes no damage.)

Her Magic Theory kicked in to inform her, that each of these functions would normally make the spell a full level higher. Each of them was interesting, no question about it. What to choose… The spell’s damage had been consistently minor and rarely enough to make a difference in the fight, apart from distracting enemies. Far Strike would not change that. Reanimation could be achieved by special potions she was sure Malvorik would soon be able to brew. So, that was also out. Blinding Shock and Booming Shock both would help with distracting enemies, but there were many instances where that would just cause unwanted attention. They both sounded cool though… Selvara was sorely tempted. She took a deep breath. Cool and fun were one thing. They as a team needed efficiency. And a stunning effect would make much more of a difference than the tiny amount of damage. The spell did already have a small chance of causing something similar, but a real stun effect would be much more reliable and powerful. She didn’t give herself more time to deliberate.

“Stunning Shock it is,” she muttered, selecting the feat. A reliable stun would be far more impactful than flashy distractions.

Looking around, she found another experiment ready to go off in a bad way. Three pipes fed a bubbling cauldron connected to three pipes. The mixture had overheated, already bubbling to a dangerous degree. Acid fumes began curling upward. Soon it would explode and probably rain acid down on the whole room. She quickly read the labels on the jars next to the experiment. One was labeled “Crushed Lye-Viper Skeleton”. That would neutralize the acid and end the reaction for good. She lifted the jar with straining wings, then put it back down and landed next to it.

Something about this was wrong. That was much easier than the last experiments. The solution was glaringly obvious. That couldn’t be right. Was there some trick? The color of the dust was bone white. She budged her skill knowledge and remembered the light brown color the bone dust ought to be. She opened the lid of the jar, carefully wafted a bit of air toward herself, and took a sniff. It was supposed to have a soapy, alkaline scent similar to ammonia but less pungent. This dust smelled strongly acidic, like biting into a lemon.

“Trevisanus, you tricky bastard,” she muttered, imagining the dungeon core smirking smugly.

She hastily opened one jar after the other until she found one filled with red powder that had the right smell, if not the usual color. She estimated the correct dosage and poured a generous portion into the cauldron. The reaction instantly subsided and the mixture turned into a black inert sludge. The three pipes closed.

While flying to the next dangers-spot, she called up the options for her Frost Breath skill feat.

Ranged Breath (Option to double range with a much smaller cone.)

Frost Wave (Option to direct the frost wave in all directions, but only with a three-step range)

Cutting Cold (Frost Breath is filled with small ice blades that cause additional cutting damage.)

Nauseous Breath (Includes nauseous gases that can incapacitate targets with vomiting and nausea.)

Penetrating Cold (Spell can even affect even targets that are resistant, but not immune, to cold damage.)

Selvara had no trouble deciding this time. Frost Wave meant she’d have to get right next to the target, which was a bad idea for a squishy spellcaster like her. Nauseous Breath would be most effective, but she had no intention to give her friends such perfect material for puns. Everyone would make fun of her bad breath every time she used that spell, she was sure of that.

Penetrating Breath would only be useful if she’d never increased her repertoire to include other elemental damage options, which she very much planned to do.

The only interesting Options were Cutting Cold and Ranged Breath. More damage was always good, adding another damage type was even better in case the target had some weakness against it. Keeping farther away from her target seemed the best option… But was it? Frost Breath had a decent range and she usually was using it while flying, making it already hard for her targets to retaliate. It was a bit of a whim, but she chose Cutting Cold. More damage never hurt. How did some of the revenants call increasing ranged damage again? More Dakka!

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The next experiment seemed easy to disarm by putting out the heating enchantment, but she took a look at the empty jars for ingredients next to it, just to be sure. She looked up when Weylan cursed in the background, but he had just found a tripwire at head-height he’d almost missed. Yeah, staying with traps on the floor and then switching to traps at higher height was a classic dungeon core tactic she’d very much liked… as long as she was on the other end of the crystal mirror.

After reading all the labels and estimating the amount someone had put into the cauldron, she contemplated what the output would be. There were some rare ingredients, but she couldn’t imagine the result being an explosion or poison gas.

She checked her surrounding for enemies again. She turned back to the experiment, then threw herself sideways and rolled away. Several blowgun darts embedded themselves into the desk where she’d just been. She whirled around and took cover behind a complex brass apparatus. The Minion-Apes had hidden themselves well. Between several pipes but not that high up at the ceiling, where the team had expected them. They also used camouflage pattern cloaks they now discarded. Selvara mentally switched on the new skill feat and blasted them with Frost Breath before they could reposition. The cone of ice was shimmered from dozens of sharp blades of ice racing along. All three monsters cried out in pain as the spell cut into them. Wounds being cut open all over their bodies, then freezing shut. They scrambled in different directions.

Selvara shook her head. Those monsters did identify as level 6. They couldn’t take much damage; they weren’t as fast as the Scourge-Squirrels. Their weapons were feeble blowguns, even if the darts were poisoned. She narrowed her eyes. That couldn’t be right. What special ability made them level 6 enemies?

As if on cue, one of the monsters pulled something from its belt. It drank a potion! It grinned at her, then vanished from sight. The other two followed suit. That was… bad. She cried to get the attention of her teammates: “The Minion-Apes are using invisibility potions! There's three of them around me.”

Trulda hurled something at the ceiling, where it exploded in a cloud of splinters. Probably some of the potion bottles the dungeon was filled with.

“They’re lower down! Stop throwing things!” Selvara hissed. “There’s an open cauldron here that’ll explode if you hit it!”

“Sorry!”

Weylan stopped looking for traps and just jumped on a table and from there from table to table to assist her. The feet of the second table he landed on immediately cracked, but he was already in the air again when the tabletop dropped. He landed on a table next to Selvara, but before he could say anything, he slapped his neck. He pulled out a blowgun dart and opened his mouth to curse, but then started to tremble and dearly dropped from the table.

“Do you have an antidote?” Selvara asked urgently.

Weylan nodded and pulled out his last potion. His hand twitched, and the vial dropped down and shattered. He looked down at the splinters uncomprehending. When he turned his hand around, he saw a dart still emitting tiny sparks.

Sevara let out an appreciative whistle while searching the area for the hidden attacker. He’d not become visible, which either meant their invisibility potion was high tier enough to withstand the movement of a blowgun attack without shattering the invisibility or it had used another potion immediately. Or was just hidden mundanely in the cluttered area. Did those flying apes have a high-tier stealth skill? Possibly. She did have unusual trouble finding them when hidden.

Her attention was torn back to Weylan when he knelt and dropped his weapon, too weak to hold it anymore. Then he rolled down from the table and dropped face down to the floor. Lifeless. Her team status told her he was still alive.

Skorr, Trulda and Ulmenglanz were still trying to cross the room without setting off traps, but several explosions, the smell of sleeping gas, and the loud clang of a parried blade trap indicated they would take quite some time to arrive to help. Should she have flown back? No. She couldn’t let the experiment alone until she knew what it did. She now had an idea, but there had been no time to test it. Any moment another dart could hit and disable her. Then she and Weylan would both be helpless and die. She had no potions with her since they were too big for her to carry.

Okay, prioritizing… Could she help Weylan? No. He was too big to carry. She’d need to protect him, avoid getting hit, and investigate the alchemical experiment further. How could she… Ah, yes.

She cast a look at the brew in the cauldron. It slowly turned a dark yellow. Taking into account the ingredients they used it had to be a rare variant of a healing potion. The reaction seemed to go too fast. She glanced around and then quickly threw in a pinch of ground Bloodsnail-Shell and turned down the heat. The rest would either finish on its own or fail. But it wouldn’t explode. She cast a zone of darkness encompassing herself and Weylan and then quickly ducked and moved a few steps away. No moment too soon, since she clearly heard the thudding of a volley of darts striking nearby wood. She sneaked over to where Weylan lay and used him as cover. His armor and leather clothing should hold up to blowgun darts and since the monsters couldn’t see him, they couldn’t target his unarmored body parts. She felt the assassin move and prepared to flee if he mistook her for an attacker and struck at her, but he just moved his body a bit around to better cover her.

The tricky bastard… He wasn’t unconscious, just baiting their attackers. And he seemed to understand her plan.

Weylan shifted again, slowly drawing something from his belt.

She heard the distant boom of another experiment going up in flames, gas catching flame and another wave of hot her filling the dungeon, heating it to an uncomfortable level. She shrugged. That couldn’t be helped. She waited for twenty heartbeats, while darts struck the surrounding area ever faster. Either the Minion-Apes had gotten reinforcement or they stopped caring for accuracy and hiding and just fired as fast as they could. Probably both. She boxed Weylan to warn him and then whispered a countdown. “Three, two, one…”

She let the darkness spell drop and rolled out of Weylans cover. She saw five Minion-Apes hovering near the ceiling in a wide circle around them, all holding blowguns that now turned at them.

Weylan jumped up and whirled his cloak in a wide arc to deflect the first wave of darts. With his other hand, he whirled a sling around twice and loosened. A marble-sized lead ball struck a Minion-Ape in the head, knocking him out. The assassin dropped his sling, jumped onto a bundle of pipes, and used his extending sword-staff to cut at another, that dodged and pulled out a potion.

Selvara jumped up, wings whirling and grappled a monster. It was bigger and stronger than her, therefore it just grinned, dropped his blowgun and slung its arms around her below her wings. She smiled, faces almost in kissing distance, then cast Shock Grip. The new spell feat instantly stunned him and his wings stopped flapping. He still held her fast, but she had expected that. She dropped down, barely slowing their fall with her wings and turned around to hit the stone floor with the Minion-Ape below her. His head hit the stone with an audible crack.

Opponent defeated: Minion-Ape (Level 6): Low XP

She had no time for triumph, but instantly flew up again, narrowly avoiding two blowgun darts coming from… Where did those monsters go?

Weylan hit one, that was probably unconscious. He was fighting another at the moment. She killed one. That left two of the five she’d seen. She whirled around, ducked, and hid next to an empty cauldron. Nothing.

She started moving again and a dart missed her by a hair’s width, scratching the bronze cauldron and flying away. She dodged again, this time unnecessarily. She still could not detect her enemies.

Weylan finally checked the floor and then kicked over a table to use it as a shield. He grinned at her: “Fun times, ey?”

“Get serious, you almost died!”

“I had just drunk an antidote when they hit me again. The potion was still working and I was almost immune to the poison. I was acting like I would need a potion to get them to attack me, but I couldn’t see the tiny sniper before it hit me. I decided to play the dying trickster pigeon.”

Selvara could not suppress a grin. Bloody shepherd. Always trying to trick instead of directly attacking.

She joined him behind his makeshift shield. He lifted the table and marched back to their two teammates, who that just crossed the last experiment. They looked both worse for wear since they’d activated several traps on their way. “Sorry to leave you alone…” he started, but Trulda waved his excuse away. “You had to get to Selvara. I’d boxed your ears if you’d done anything else. We survived. Barbarians are hardy. Some puny traps can’t face me.”

Skorr used the moment of quiet to finish tying a bandage on a long cut on his arm. His eyebrows were gone. Burned away, as was some of his hair. His Brigantine armor had some holes the metal plates were shining through. He started to say something, then only grumbled something incomprehensible.

A loud whoosh from behind reminded them of the time limit. The back third of the dungeon floor was covered in flames that followed them with normal walking speed. The first drops of sweat collected on their faces from the heat and Ulmenglanz’s condition had further deteriorated. Something in the air seemed to poison her. The five looked around. There was still some way to the end of the floor, they could not see very far with all the walls and experimental equipment. Steam and fog started to worsen vision even more.

Skorr coughed, then straightened: “Same formation as before. Selvara, you stay with us this time. We try to move fast enough to avoid experiments going off. We can’t risk you going alone with those winged menaces flying about.”

Selvara nodded, then remembered something. “Quick, before we go, we have to fill up flasks with the cauldron’s contents, it’s almost certainly a concentrated healing potion.”

Trulda took out some empty corked bottles from her cleavage of holding and they used a funnel and ladle from a nearby table to hastily fill the potion in. Selvara smelled it, then nodded. “It’s still too hot right now, the reaction hasn’t finished. It’ll only work after the brew has cooled down completely and rested for about a day. We won’t be using it in this dungeon.”

Weylan rolled his eyes. “Of course we won’t. This dungeon has more tricks than a con artist at a card table during a festival.”