The night passed, and not long after light reached the surface to Zoe’s Cosmic Vision, Brick teleported up then back down into the hovel to check for themself.
“We’re alright,” Brick said and shook the two other members awake.
Blue and Spark both stirred awake and stretched when they got out of bed.
“We’re going to try your plans, today.” Brick said. “We’ll clear out the moles in the large cavern, and then try and clear out the ones in the narrow tunnel before we dig down. Any questions?”
When nobody spoke up, Brick teleported them all out of the sealed hole and they walked over to the dungeon entrance.
“We had a wanderer last night,” Brick said on the way over, gesturing to some of the deep grooves left behind by its footsteps.
Blue and Spark both nodded, a sombre feeling welling up from inside them both.
“You think it’s still around?" Spark asked.
“Probably not,” Brick shook their head. “Not during the day anyway. But at night we’ll have Mara seal us in. Better safe than sorry.”
Zoe nodded, and Brick teleported the group down into the dungeon entrance. They ran through the tunnels to the larger cavern and hopped down. The once ragged floor was repaired, leaving no signs of the destruction from the day before as the ground lit up with mana from the moles that lurked below.
They took out the moles even faster than last time, only spending forty five minutes dealing with the smaller swarm in the large cavern. In the tunnel, rather than trying to push forward, they decided to just inch into it so they’d still have the wide open cavern behind them and Brick wouldn’t be quite so vulnerable from behind.
The moles seemed almost endless in the tunnel. Bodies piled up to the side of the entrance as Blue and Spark swung their spears around, slashing through and impaling mole after mole. But after a few hours, the barrage of moles stopped as abruptly as it began.
Brick gestured forward, and Zoe pushed the walls aside deeper as they inched forward through the tunnel. They made it all the way through the tunnel unimpeded, but rather than stepping out into the cavern below, they climbed back up through the tunnel.
They walked over to the other side of the cavern up above, and Brick gestured to an area for Zoe to carve into with her Earth skill. The earth was dense and extended far further down than Zoe expected, given the amount of rubble that fell when the ceiling collapsed. She wondered where it went when the massive mole screamed. Was it compressed under its own weight, or perhaps destroyed so as to not create too much rubble for the arena? She wasn’t sure.
After a few minutes of digging, she broke into the lower cavern and the group hopped down, falling down to the floor. As their feet reached the ground, the earth quaked and the three large moles rose from the ground. Before the larger mole had a chance to roar, Blue and Spark rushed at it and impaled it on their spears. Mana rushed down the spears and exploded in the mole’s form as the space around its claws twisted and warped, cracking its left claw.
The two medium moles swung their massive claws at Blue and Spark who both jumped over them and ripped their spears from the larger mole’s form, stabbing them back down into its gut. More mana rushed down them, and the large mole collapsed in a heap on the ground.
The two medium moles tried to dive into the ground, but Brick stopped one of them with a tear in space that smashed through its claws. Zoe fired off a blast of water next to Spark where she felt the mole resurfacing, and Spark jumped out of the way, swinging their spear down at its head.
Blue swung their spear at the clawless mole scrambling at Spark, teeth gnashing and stabbed into its side. Mana rushed through the spear and pulsed within the mole as it too fell to a motionless heap.
Zoe shot off another blast of water at the ground where the final mole was resurfacing, just behind Brick. Brick dove to the side, rolling on the ground as the mole launched out where they were standing a moment prior. Spark rushed in and swung their spear, smashing through on of its claws as it dove back under the ground.
It surfaced again just behind Blue who managed to destroy its second claw and then Spark finished it off with their spear.
*Ding* You have cleared the Grondur dungeon. Would you like to claim your reward?
Zoe pushed her approval through to the system, and another pile of gems appeared in front of the group. This time with a necklace, a pair of leather boots and a shield.
*Ding* You have accepted the Grondur’s dungeon reward. Teleportation will begin in 60 seconds… 59…. 58… 57…
“Much smoother, this time.” Brick said, grabbing the items floating in the pile of gems and storing them away in one of their new rings.
“Agreed. Stopping the mole from collapsing the roof makes a big difference.” Spark said.
“So did clearing out the tunnel first. I didn’t have to worry about getting tripped up by one of the smaller moles.” Blue said.
Brick nodded. “And I didn’t have to save my mana for teleports since you two could handle the medium moles just fine if I disabled one of them.”
“The question then is do we want to stay here and keep clearing the dungeon?” Blue asked.
“We can’t really tell what the rewards do, so we don’t have any way of knowing if they were better or worse than last time.” Brick said. “I vote we leave. The dungeon is exciting, but we’ve done it now. Lets get to the next town and back on track for the dragon.”
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“I vote we stay. A few more days of this and we’ll never have to worry about money again.” Spark said.
“I vote we leave. We already have enough to not have to worry about money, and we can always come back if we ever need more.” Blue said.
“I vote we leave. Like Blue said, we can just come back. And honestly just clearing the same dungeon over and over sounds really boring.” Zoe answered.
Brick laughed. “Then it’s settled, we leave. We’ll try and find some more dungeons on our adventure though, alright Spark?"
Spark shrugged. “Whatever. Probably best not to stick around if you saw a wanderer anyway.”
Brick nodded, and space warped, sending them back up to outside the dungeon entrance. They only had a couple hours of light left, so the group made their way back to the earthen hovel and set up for the night.
Blue and Spark both fell asleep rather quick, while Zoe and Brick stayed up chatting about whatever came to mind for a bit. Whenever silence took over, anxiety and fear began to take over Brick’s mind, so Zoe tried to keep them talking. Different animals they found cute or different foods they liked to eat. What kind of weather they enjoyed or different classes that the low level Zoe might be interested in.
Brick started teleporting up to the surface every so often just before light, and woke up the others when day came. The group fell back into a comfortable routine of travelling during the day, and sleeping in whatever hovel Zoe built for them at night as they made their way to the next town.
It was a week before they reached the next town — Newtown, according to Brick. Named by an unfortunate miscommunication of one person asking if this was the new town, and the other person thinking they said the name was Newton. Nobody cared enough to come up with a better name, so Newtown just ended up sticking, even though it had been several hundred years since it was formed.
Newtown was different to the previous ravine Zoe had visited. Set instead in a forest full of towering trees that were visible days before they arrived at their base, with massive root systems that wound through the ground. Zoe wondered how the trees of Kaira library — or Flester’s Might she supposed now, would look in comparison. The library trees seemed taller, but here in Newtown there were so many that it felt like she’d been struck with a shrink ray.
Thick wool cloths covered the roots to form homes and buildings that people operated shops out of, with gravel walkways that lead from covering to covering. A handful of people wandered through the town as they arrived with a few hours of light still left in the day.
An anxiety that Zoe hadn’t even realized was around faded away as they reached the town and was replaced with a feeling of relief and serenity.
“Ah its good to be back.” Brick said. “Travelling is real fun, but forgetting about all that is so much nicer. I’ll be at the bar. We’ll deal with our stuff tomorrow.” They said before vanishing, appearing a few dozen feet away and entering one of the cloth buildings covering a large, twisting root.
Blue and Spark both shrugged then walked off down the gravel walkway towards where Brick went, and Zoe followed along with them.
“Sorry about that, they get really stressed having to keep everything together while we’re out of town so as soon as we’re somewhere safe, they let it all go.” Blue said.
“That’s fine, I get it.” Zoe said. “It’ll be fun to just have a day off anyway.”
“I’d prefer if we could just keep moving personally.” Spark said and sighed. “But there’s a reason I’m not the leader. We’d probably all die to my recklessness within a day.”
The entrance to the bar Brick entered was covered with a different coloured cloth that fell over top of a hole cut out of the thick dark cloth that made up the wall, and Blue held it aside for Spark and Zoe to enter. Inside was what resembled a normal bar, with a few key differences. Wooden planks were placed around the floor sporadically, with gravel patches covering the other spots. Gnarled wooden tables were strewn throughout, with a small kitchen area in the centre beneath the tallest point of the root’s arch.
Brick was already sitting at a table near the edge of the space, the dark cloth falling to the ground in a clump inches away from their chair and swaying as their elbow brushed up against the wall when they picked up their wooden mug.
“Beer?” A nearby girl asked when they entered, looking not a day over seventeen. The youngest person Zoe had seen since she’d come down into the valleys, and level forty nine at that. Quite high for somebody at her age, but Zoe supposed the rugged, dangerous lifestyle one would have to live down in the valley would lend well to more levels.
“Yes please,” Blue said. “Three.”
“And a plate of food for me. We’ll be over there.” Spark said and pointed at Brick.
Zoe decided to just have her dinner later, wherever she managed to hole up for the night rather than try the food at the bar. There was a bit of an offputting, sour smell that filled the room that made Zoe a little apprehensive about joining Spark for dinner, and it seemed Blue and Brick as well who also avoided the food.
The girl nodded and rushed off to the kitchen in the middle of the room while Zoe’s group walked over to Brick’s table. There was only one other chair at the table, so Blue and Zoe had to steal chairs away from a nearby table, then squeeze in to fit.
“You know we’re always going to come get a beer with you.” Blue said.
“Bah. You’re always too slow.” Brick waved their hand in a dismissive gesture. “Besides, you catch up just fine.”
Blue rolled their eyes. “How long are we gonna stay here?"
“I haven’t thought about it yet. Few days, at least. We should see if we can find somebody to check out these items, maybe sell some stuff. And I’d like to buy some more supplies. Better blankets, at least. Maybe some pillows.” Brick waved their hand in a dismissive gesture again and took a sip from their mug. “But whatever, we’re relaxing today. No more stress.”
Three more mugs arrived shortly after, along with a plate of greasy meat for Spark who dug in as soon as it was set down. Zoe picked up her drink and sniffed it. A deep roasted and somewhat sour, though not offputting smell flooded her nose. She took a sip and scrunched her nose. Beer was never one of her preferred drinks, at least nothing made from grain. There tended to be a distinct bitterness that she just didn’t enjoy, and this beer was no different.
It had a subtle sweetness to it, with a rich caramel flavour that she did almost find pleasant. But that odd bitterness crashed through it all, ruining the flavour. Maybe one day she could try brewing her own and see if she could make something she enjoyed?
She’d done cider before, once. Decades ago. Beer couldn’t be too different, she imagined. Mash up some grains, toss it in a container and fill it with water? She put it on the back burner as something to learn about if she ever had a few years of boredom to kill again.
They all finished their drinks, and Spark finished demolishing the plate of meat in front of them, then they retired for the night. According to Brick, any empty room was free to take for the night so Zoe split off from the others and found an empty cloth room where she laid down on the cold gravel ground and listened to the sounds of Newtown at night.
It was much less active than she expected — people didn’t walk around between the buildings at night like they did in the ravine, though the people under nearby roots continued to be active and excited. Conversations and hushed laughter could be heard, and Zoe found herself drifting off to sleep with the pleasant background noise of Newtown.