The doors swung faster than I'd ever seen, hitting me in the butt and tossing me in the middle of the room. I heard the clicking of claws on stone as more raccoons surged up the stairs.

Some musically inclined Dungeons even had theme songs for their bosses. I was sure if this one was like that, it would play one that mocked me for being so foolish.

I had no idea what triggered the boss fight. Was the Dungeon free of its contract? It could be that the death of the City Lord had broken it.

I didn't think I had a chance of defeating the Land Drake before we got overwhelmed by the damn raccoons. Yes, they were worth a lot of Experience points compared to the effort of killing them but they were swarm monsters; the Dungeon had no issues expending its monsters fattening the Delvers so it could eat better in a couple of hours.

They were coming. So far, the boss hasn't attacked me and I was thankful for that. I tried to move away. The Quetzalcoatl Land Drake screeched at me. I pointed at the stairs. "Enemy!" I kicked a charred raccoon corpse at the first one coming out into the room. It was knocked back down the stairs. The next one got an arrow between its eyes.

> For killing level …

The boss charged at me. It opened its mouth and spat fire at me. "Bad!" I shouted but didn't dodge. Instead, I walked into the fire, trusting my amulet and my latest Skill rank to spare some of my HP.

The fire breath was a damage-per-second effect, one which ate around a hundred HP per second after all the reductions. But running into and through the fire meant I could bop the Quetzalcoatl Land Drake's snout. Surprised, it clamped its mouth shut and ended the firebreath.

"Bad!" I admonished. Then I pointed at the couple of raccoons who came up the stairs. "Attack!"

The boss screeched right in my face. I shouted "Bad" again. I used the opportunity my admonishment created to splash the interior of that big mouth with a superior healing potion. My timing meant that the Land Drake would associate the reward (the potion and the healing) with the fact it had stopped screeching at me. The effect was immediate. The scratches it had all over its body healed. It didn't replace missing scales or feathers, though.

Confused, the Quetzalcoatl Land Drake halted. Moving to its side, I fired at the raccoons running toward us.

The boss screeched and tried to bite me. It wasn't a violent attack at full speed, more like a "should I really be doing that" kind of indecision. I used my bow to shove the snout away. "Bad!" I shouted. It reacted the way I expected and paused.

> For training a wild Quetzalcoatl Land Drake, you gained 5 Experience points.

Progress.

I pointed at the raccoons again. "Enemy. Attack!"

The boss looked at the stairs and breathed fire again. Six or five raccoons were fried in moments. But the frenzied monsters kept coming.

"Good boy!" I cheered. The Quetzalcoatl Land Drake preened but then halted in confusion when I said "Boy." I got another tamer experience award—two points this time.

More raccoons came. I shot them as fast as I could, causing them to go unconscious. There was something weird with their HP. One of the raccoons evaded the arrow and dashed at us. The boss bit it in half, swallowing the upper body whole.

"Good boy!"

The boss gave me a glare but the System awarded me a single Class Experience point.

Another attempt at bonding.

> Do you want to bond with Quetzalcoatl Land Drake (boss)?

Yes.

> Attempt failed.

No. I felt so close!

I sent another ten raccoons to the dreaming lands. The boss cooked all of the ones unconscious with another firebreath attack, this one not even close to me.

I heard the raccoons still climbing the staircase connecting this room to the sixth-floor screech in fear of the fire and rush back down the stairs. It seemed they somehow learned their lesson.

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We got some respite. The Land Drake didn't attack me but it kept a wary eye on me. I believed that meant the boss no longer considered me a potential enemy, I was already splitting Exp with Kara so dividing the awards by three instead of two hurt less. Not to mention it saved me the time to finish them. I used the time to check the blue box from the System. The notifications scrolled up. Somewhere between these dozens of kills, I leveled up again.

> You gained the Marvelous Treats Perk. Spend 100 MP to infuse treats you give to non-hostile creatures with a delicious and alluring smell and taste.

I took another potion from my pouch and used the Perk on the cork. It immediately drew the boss' attention. Its reaction confirmed that my friendliness score was in the positive.

I tossed the bottle and it bit on the vial with its back teeth, crushing it. With its snout pointed up, it chugged most of the potion. And then it swallowed the broken vial. It was good that the glass on potion vials was made to break into squares and not sharp edges.

"Good boy!" I reinforced the training. The boss disliked the word, "boy" again. I was too preoccupied with the fight to think deeply about it.

Three raccoons jumped up, out of the staircase, screaming at us. They were sniped out of the air, went unconscious, fell at our feet, and were eaten by the Land Drake. The others remained down there, chittering and plotting.

I reached a conclusion. These humanoid raccoon monsters were of the learning type. I remembered reading about that in a bestiary.

These kinds of social monsters had some sort of collective memory and the experiences of one were shared with the others nearby. It meant they would eventually adapt to the enemy and improve their fighting ability. If my conjecture was correct, it meant that the delvers would soon become overwhelmed by the swarm tactics and then killed when the collective memory figured out their attacks.

It could be that the raccoons also went unconscious when hurt to connect to this consciousness and better transfer information between minds. Just like I did, delvers would ignore the ones unconscious, giving them time to evolve their tactics and skills.

What a devious monster species.

While I thought, the chittering down there intensified. "They are coming," I warned my ally of the occasion. The boss stared at the staircase opening and tilted its head. It never looked away from me, making sure to always keep me in its peripheral vision. Since it was a predator, its eyes faced forward to give it a better sense of depth.

The chittering stopped. I drew nine arrows, keeping three between each of my right-hand fingers. I nocked them three at a time too. The Land Drake crooned and lowered its body, tensing its muscular legs, ready to pounce. It inflated its chest.

The room exploded with raccoons. I fired the nine arrows in less than a second and then drew more. From this distance and with these many targets, it was impossible to miss. The boss opened its mouth wide and breathed a wide cone of fire. It was hotter too. The fire heated my left side uncomfortably.

Raccoons rushed low on all fours, keeping themselves close to the ground, using their fallen and dead brethren as cover. I sniped them with an arrow at a time, getting into a sort of battle trance.

The Land Drake ran around, clawing at the raccoons and stomping on as many as it could. Some jumped on its back; I took aim and sniped them, causing the climbers to go unconscious and drop from the boss.

It was risky. If I missed the climbers, all my effort taming the Land Drake would be lost.

Not wanting to give them time to prove my collective memory theory, I finished the unconscious monsters with a well-placed arrow to the nogging.

Some rushed my way. I had to resort to kicks and using Scout's Oath as a melee weapon. They scratched and bit me.

Until fire enveloped me. The damage tick was lower now, less than fifty HP per second. It was annoying but it did knock the raccoons overwhelming me unconscious. I slammed Scout's Oath on them, breaking their tiny heads.

The firebreath ended. My HP was reaching a third of my total. Since I wasn't injured, I drank an HP potion. Repositioning myself closer to the closed doors, I went back to shooting the raccoon bears.

The boss changed its behavior. It now laid low next to the stairs, biting the raccoons only after I shot them. Every time it waited, I shouted words of encouragement. Every three or so joint kills, I gained one point of Class Experience.

The noise coming from the stairs stopped. Either the raccoons became ninjas or the sixth floor had run out of monsters. The Land Drake was staring down the stairs, probably wondering when more food would come up. I approached to rub the side of the Land Drake's head, petting it with words of encouragement.

Then it tried to bite my hand, and I shouted "Bad!", causing it to stagger in confusion. Then I quickly picked a rather intact and unburnt raccoon corpse and flavored it with my newest Perk. The boss tried to take it but I held it back with a "Hold!" command. I counted two seconds and tossed it to the boss. With a snap, it ate the raccoon whole and chirped. "Good…!" I hesitated, then grinned. I finally understood the earlier behavior. "Girl!"

It chirped again and preened its feathers. Bloody hell. It wasn't the only thing I was missing but I felt somewhat stupid for not noticing it earlier. In my defense, telling male lizards from female ones was fucking hard.

I used my bond Perk.

Do you want to bond with Quetzalcoatl Land Drake (boss)?

Yes. And please work this time.

> Bond successful. You have tamed level 61 Quetzalcoatl Land Drake.

What the hell? Level sixty-one?

> For taming Quetzalcoatl Land Drake, you gained 500 Experience points.

> You gained the Lightning under Pressure Dungeon Boss Tamer achievement.

> Look, I'm busy right now, so here's the usual double bond strength, it is already coded in your class. But you better run faster than you can cheer.

I tried to check the boss' Status. It didn't open. Instead, another System message appeared.

> I said, run, dumbass.

The stairs rumbled and I heard rocks cracking and falling, as if something too big to fit in the stairwell was coming.

The doors swung open. My party ran inside.

"George, are you hurt?" Kara asked. We hugged.

"Baahhhhh!" William greeted our newest team member.

Sleepy tried to eat a raccoon.

The staircase rumbled again.

I pointed toward the exit. "Everyone, run! The sixth-floor boss is coming!"