Next day around noon we find four people gathered next to the portal in the middle of an argument.
The shortest person in the group sighs as she rubbed her temples, “I know our fearless leader suggested we should do a quick run but we don’t really know what is in there.”
A man with what could technically be called a mace but most would just admit it was a pole with a clump of concrete on the end of it rolls his eyes. “Well duh, we don’t know what’s in there, we haven’t been yet. Never will too if’n we keep standing here arguing. Ace suggested it partly as an exploratory mission anyway. Plus I know you enjoyed having that bit of meat in last night’s stew. You can’t fool me Jan.”
Jan shakes her head, “You actually believe his name is Ace? My bet is he just went and changed it the first chance he got. A bit on the nose too. Then again, I would believe his name more than yours Mr. Jack Hammer.”
The other girl in the group steps in at this point. “Now you can just shut up Jan. Just because he isn’t interested in you doesn’t mean you get to assume his sexuality. And Jack here really is called that. I knew his family since before the end. When their family migrated their last name was different and the customs officer mistranslated it something bad. As for his first name? That’s all on his parents.”
Jan rolls her eyes, “Oh so Ruby decides to step in and defend their names.”
Ruby snorts, “Hell yeah I changed my name. Maybe everyone else has some sort of special connection to who they are from before. Not me, my family never liked me and the feeling was mutual. All I ever cared about was my geology studies and rubies always attracted me the most. Seemed like a fine name to start over after the end. Though Jack showing up was a bit unexpected.”
The last remaining member of the party sighs and crosses her arms, “All of yah just shut up wouldja? Ace wants this place figured out and is too polite to order us around despite being the leader. Jan, you're only around because we need a healer on the first go around at least. If you weren’t the highest leveled healer, you wouldn’t even be one of us ten founders. The other two might still be level one but at least they aren’t so argumentative. And just for the record my name wasn’t Sammy originally either so get off your high horse. The system gave everyone a chance to change their name and some of us took it. Now get a move on everyone!”
Sammy grabs Jan by the collar of her robe and drags her through the portal. Ruby and Jack stand there in shock for a moment but soon follow. They didn’t take long to follow but what greets them on the other side is a dead goat. Sammy’s shield has a new dent to it and her sword newly blooded, so how it happened isn’t hard to guess. Off to the side they spot Jan crumpled against the wall in fear.
Jack raises an eyebrow, “Welp, I guess we know why you didn’t want to come.”
This comment galvanizes Jan and she stands up in a huff, “I was just knocked over when that barbarian pushed me away.”
Sammy rolls her eyes, “And no thanks for saving your hide from an unnecessary injury. Plus if any of us would be a barbarian it would be Jack over there. Seriously Jack, did you rip that pole out of the ground yourself or something?”
Jack scratches the back of his head, “I needed a big mace and those thugs had sold all our old weapons to the system shop. They even had the nerve to close the shop when we came for them so we couldn’t get anything back. Going to suck not having that available.”
Sammy claps her hands, “Okay folks, we can work out our problems when not in a murder pit. I didn’t want to mention it yesterday but from what little the team before told us that goats shouldn’t have been here. They reported that this room was completely clear of anything besides some horned rabbits. Now there were a couple rabbits but they escaped into the tunnel over there.”
“Basically, what I am trying to say is we don’t know what we might find. The tutorial guide I had said new dungeons should always have three monsters and we only know of two here, goats and kobolds.”
Jan dusts herself off and scowls, “Maybe we just got a special needs dungeon?”
Ruby slaps her knee and laughs, “Well it would fit since we already have a healer going with that theme. But my guess is either the dungeon has some sort of super buff last boss type thing going on or an ambush predator that the last group got lucky with and missed.”
Jack throws his hands up, “We won’t find out just standing here. Now I wouldn’t mind leading but you seem to enjoy being in front Sammy.”
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She rolls her eyes, “And that has nothing to do with being the only one here going sword and board. Whatever, onward! That last goat didn’t drop any meat and I am feeling hungry.”
Sammy heads down the twisting hallway closely followed by the other three. At the last bend she holds up her hand to stop them. With a peak around the corner she nods to herself, “Okay, looks like the next room does only have three goats as reported. That is both good and bad. Good, because our info isn’t all wrong. Bad because that means the first goat was new and not just one that wandered from here. Anyway, let’s go!” And Sammy walked right out into the room.
The three goats charge at her but a side step with a light shove of her shield knocks one of them into the other two. The goats land in a pile and Jack takes the chance to do an overhead swing of his mace squashing all three to death. Blood is splashed all around and Jan squeaks as it gets on her.
A few moments later the bodies fade away including the blood splatters, leaving behind two chunks of meat. Jack smiles, “nice! Two drops is a decent haul.” And he takes out a plastic bag and packs away the meat.
While he is taking care of that and Jan is freaking out Sammy takes the chance to look into the next room. It is empty but she can see the next place after is filled with vines. Turning back to the others she shrugs, “even if the monsters have changed it looks like the layout hasn’t. The vine room is up ahead. Though as the guide pointed out, when the terrain seems to change for no reason, look for the reason. I bet that room is where the mystery monster is.”
Jack nods as he picks Jan up off the floor, “seems likely.”
Ruby steps into the next room, “let me take a crack at it.” And she throws a hand up in the air. In the palm of that hand a small spark of fire appears. From that small spark it grows into a boiling ball of fire and she tosses it into the vine filled room. The ball hits a vine and instead of exploding it splashes. The flame splatters all over the nearby vines which start to smoke and sputter. These vines catch and the fire spreads. Ruby pumps her fist in the air, “Hell yeah!”
This excitement doesn’t last long though as while the area hit by the spell burns the fire stops spreading. The vines are just too moist to catch. Soon enough the spell runs out of juice and even the vines that had been splattered start to go out. Jan watching this sneers, “well that definitely helped.”
Jack, who was still holding her up, lets go and Jan tumbles to the floor again. He stretches and yawns, “Welp, guess we have to do this the hard way. I think we should stick to one side of the room.”
Sammy shrugs, “sounds like as good a plan as any. I’ll go first again, Jan you're in the middle.” And once again she heads off without waiting for the others. Jack shrugs and grabs Jan again as he heads off. Ruby stands there for a moment but with a little hustle on her part catches up. No way is she going to end up at the back of the party.
Sammy’s choice of following the far wall soon brings them to one of the assassin vines. She even manages to step on it before noticing the monsters. When the vine tries to pull back, she reacts and stomps down. A swing of her sword is enough to lop off that limb causing the monster to flail all of its other vines in pain.
Then she gets knocked into the center of the mass. A goat having charged out from under a small bush, taking her by surprise. The vines wrap around her and start to squeeze. Jack drops Jan once again and swings out with his mace, flattening the goat.
Ruby traces a line in the air and a thin ribbon of flame takes form before slicing forward. The ribbon of fire isn’t the most sturdy construct, only able to cut through a single vine before parts of it start to fade. That is enough though as the flame is able to lop off a few of the vines holding Sammy’s sword arm in place.
Sword now freed, she is able to slice herself the rest of the way out. Once she is away Jack takes his chance and pulps the center of mass with his concrete mace. Now dead the monster loses grip of the ceiling and falls to the floor.
Sammy stretches her arms, “well that hurt. I could hear my bones creaking from that. Anymore and something would have broken! Thanks for saving Ruby. Anyway, could you give me a bit of healing Jan?”
Jan rolls her eyes, “You aren’t bleeding so live with it.”
Sammy sighs, “Well yah just a little you know what. Fine, if you want to play that way we can play that way. Just be sure that you aren’t going to join our team again.”
Jack rubs the bridge of his nose, “That is a bit rude Sammy. Plus you don’t have the authority to kick her out.” Jan sneers at Sammy when she hears that but her face goes slack with Jacks follow up. He shakes his head, “That would be my job. Jan, you aren’t going to be in our team again. Anyway, look at that! The vine monster dropped some berries for us. A bit of fruit to add variety to our diet isn’t a bad thing. Though the next team who comes through will need a scout of some sort. I can definitely see why the guides had us going in groups of six.”
Ruby nods, “Yeah, with the four of us we have a good number of roles covered but what we lack has already shown itself to be important. I wish Jim wasn’t such a loner. Be nice if he would join us over here instead of staying inside his forest. He could be the mysterious eleventh member of the ten founders. Still can’t believe the system recognizes that nonsense.”
Sammy shrugs, “Paths are just weird. Half of them seem cookie cutter and the other half are totally out there. Doesn’t help that everyone and their mother that knows about them has the same song and dance about them. Don’t share them even with your own mother or whatever person they think you might spill the beans to. Nevermind the fact that to know all they do about them means someone shared at some point. Plus I don’t see how people knowing us ten have a path for saving the towns would do anything.”
Behind Sammy Jan grimaces at the mention of the path but nobody notices. At the same time off in the forest Jim feels a shudder go up his spine and he mutters to himself how he is glad he didn’t share the fact he got the founders path as well.