The heavy gate creaked open, revealing a large dark hall lined by tall pillars dimly lit by Chips flames. The golden light casting long shadows against stone walls covered with colorful, if very dusty and tattered blue and green banners heralding some long forgotten people. Piles of rubble and debris littered the room, the air filled with dust stirred up by the door.

It was a beautiful and yet hauntingly sad vision of a place once majestic fallen to ruin, and Lindle would have given it his full appreciation if it wasn’t for the massive monster in the center of it, frozen mid-sniff and staring at him.

It resembled the Iceshell Pangolins that burrowed out in the hills, but this thing was a full head taller, making it twice his height on its hind feet. It’s scales, instead of being simply coated with ice, were instead formed completely out of wicked-looking crystals that trailed down into a thick and flat tail and displayed a massive pair of shining crystalline claws. The only natural weapon it seemed to have that wasn’t made out of crystal was a set of tusks, unimpressive compared to the rest of its body but it still looked capable of impaling Lindle if he got close.

Around him, the adventurers had also frozen stiff, eyes locked with the pangolin.

“I thought you said there weren’t any monsters right at the entrance!” Rosato whisper-hissed out of the side of his mouth at Theodore.

“There weren’t when I looked. ” Theodore responded, his hands slowly going to his knives.

Lindle unconsciously took a step back down the stairs, and the Pangolin reared up.

The adventurers sprung into action. Theodore and Rosato drew their weapons and ran forward as Dorothea and Chip simultaneously raised their hands and cast spells, speaking the names aloud this time.

“[Icicle Nail]!"

"[Burning Thorn]!”

Two giant spikes formed on either side of the monster, one of ice and another that looked like a sharp piece of wood ablaze with Chips golden flames, and a moment later both smashed into the pangolin's back at the same time. The fire spell scattered off the monster's crystal scales but the ice spell penetrated into it and then shattered. The monster roared in pain as some of its crystal scales cracked.

Dorothea shouted. “It’s weak to ice!”

“Got it!” Rosato shouted back as he charged head-on as the pangolin was distracted. “[Cold Blade]!'“ Mist began falling to the ground from his sword as ice formed around his blade, giving him extra length as he stabbed it into the pangolin's body.

They had a formation planned out in advance to test for elemental weaknesses? That was an impressive level of coordination. Wait, no, now wasn’t the time to stand around doing nothing like an idiot. Lindle looked around and saw Chip ahead of him, both casters moving into the room as Rosato got the monster's attention. He made his way next to Chip as he cast a buffing spell.

“What should I do?” He asked.

Chip looked at him for a moment before snapping his head back to the pangolin. “Stay behind me, keep something ready to protect yourself. Don’t throw anything dangerous unless Rosato is clear,” he responded.

Lindle hesitated for another second before nodding, getting into position behind Chip as he cast another spell. He rummaged around in his bag for anything that seemed useful, but he couldn’t think of anything. He didn’t pack anything centered around freezing monsters, what in the Reach was weak to ice?! Nothing else in his pouch could pack enough punch to hurt a monster this big.

Feeling a bit useless Lindle stood back and watched.

Chip had switched to casting mostly defensive and supportive spells on Rosato. The kitsune locking down the monster with savage stabs to its underside, blocking or dodging its retaliatory swipes.

Dorothea hurled one spell after another, each burst of magic leaving frost creeping up the crystals and cracking, leaving openings in the pangolin's defense that Theodore exploited with only a seconds delay. Each time the monster tried to turn its attention to its attackers, Rosato bashed it’s head with his shield or landed a heavy blow with his sword.

The adventurers fought tirelessly and left wounds that looked devastating, but the monster continued just as tirelessly. Unlike the Razorbacks this monster clearly had a wealth of HP to allow it to keep fighting under the focused assault.

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Reaching up a claw it brought down on Rosato, pinning him in place as he used his shield to stop it. As it pressed down on him, Theodore appeared from the side with his dagger aimed at its neck. As he leapt into the air Rosato shoved the pangolin off of him with a grunt. As his target moved positions the pangolin twisted with the motion and turned his back on the rogue.

With a swipe of its tail it knocked Theodore out of the air with a devastating blow. the rogue flew back into the wall with a gasp, all the air forced out of his lungs as the wall shook.

Chip turned to Theodore and cast a healing spell. “[Life Gift]!” As healing energies surrounded the rogue Chip turned his head and shouted at Lindle. “Use a strength enhancer on Rose!”

Startled into action Lindle reached into his pouch and grabbed the potion. Cycling his Aura he activated [Throw] and lobbed it at Rosato. “Rose! Strength Buff incoming!”

Seeing his potion fly through the air, Dorothea cast a new spell. “[Haste]!'“

As the potion shattered against the back of Rosatos armor, both buffs activated on him simultaneously. With a roar the knight blurred past the pangolins claw, slammed the flat of his shield against its chest, and heaved, flipping the giant monster into the air.

Lindle stared in shock as Rosato then leaped into the air after the pangolin, impaling it with his oversized sword of ice, causing the both of them to go flipping through the hall. Falling to earth on its back, shattered crystals going everywhere, the pangolin shrieked.

“What in the beyond… my potions aren’t anywhere near that powerful!”

“Hestia is also the goddess of hospitality, one of my divine boons allows me to double the effects of buffs that a number of my allies receive.” Chip answered, smiling as he watched his friend.

Rosato pulled his sword out of its chest, raising it above his head, Lindle could see his tails unfurl and fan out as he spoke. “[Foxfire: Burst]!” Plunging his sword into the pangolin all the way to the hilt, a sudden burst of heat and purple light burst inside the pangolin's body.

It struggled for another moment before slumping to the ground, lifeless. Rosato pulled out his sword, the ice that covered it earlier melted away. Sliding to the ground he called out. “Status check?”

“I’m good on MP.” Dorothea answered.

“Same here.” Chip said.

“I was down a quarter of my HP, but I’m mostly good now.” Theodore added. Just a quarter? That blow could have knocked Lindle down to 0 if he was in Theodore's place.

Rosato nodded and then looked at Lindle expectantly.

Lindle was still looking at the corpse of the pangolin, the amount of force and power higher-level people and monsters were playing with was terrifying up close. He had only ever seen the elders battle against the Apex predators in the distance, but the gap in ability between him and people with classes was sinking in. His mom was a similar level to these adventurers but he had never seen her do anything like this before. Was that a difference between adventuring classes and combat classes?

After almost a minute his gaze shifted and he saw Rosato still looking at him expectantly. “Oh! sorry. Yeah, I’m all good, I used just the one potion.”

“Good! Check around the room for anything interesting or valuable and then let’s continue.”

Everyone started searching the room around Lindle. Sifting through the rubble around behind the banners. Lindle didn’t see how they could go from fighting to looting so fast. His heart was beating out of his chest.

Taking a minute to calm down, Lindle edged his way over to the corpse. Climbing to the top, he looked to see a mass of charred flesh where its chest used to be. Whatever fire resistance it had clearly hadn’t protected it from Rosato's last attack. His stomach wriggled uneasily and Lindle looked away, sliding back off of the corpse.

As he got back on the ground, his foot sent a shard of crystal sliding away. Looking down he saw all the shattered crystals littering the floor. He kneeled down and picked one up, looking at it closely.

“Hey are these valuable?” He asked.

Dorothea looked up from her rubble pile and answered. “Not really. Dungeon monster materials are rare and can be useful, but considering it was weak to cold…” She shrugged. “I doubt anyone would find something like that useful on the surface.”

That was true. The monster had been tough, but considering how easily the crystals cracked after being exposed to Dorotheas or Rosato's ice they were frankly worthless. Most things in the Reach were heavily attuned to frost as an element. Just taking it outside of the warmth of the dungeon into the Reach would probably cause them to weaken.

Still, he wondered if they had any alchemical properties, it could be interesting to experiment with them. “Is it okay if I take some for myself?” he asked.

“Yeah it’s fine.” Dorothea answered dismissively, going back to searching. “You’re the one carrying most of the stuff after all.”

Lindle gathered up a bunch of the crystals and shoved them into his porter bag. They were a little heavy but they didn’t add too many pounds, he could handle it, though sadly he couldn’t fit any of the larger spikes through the opening.

After another few minutes, with clear disappointment in his voice, Rosato called off the search. “This is the first room, so it makes sense, but I hoped that the dungeon would leave something here with a big monster like that around.”

“I don’t think this was where it was supposed to be, maybe it followed my scent here after I scouted the area.” Theodore suggested.

Rosato sighed but acknowledged the point. “There’s nothing for it then. We go deeper.”