The gray sucker-lined tentacle tightened against my leg and pulled. This unquestionably would have tripped me if I’d been human but I am a dwarf. Very heavy with a low center of gravity. The tentacle dragged me towards the pond.

Quick as thought I dropped the quarterstaff and pulled my axe. Chopping down it took three whacks to separate the end of the tentacle from its base. Two more of the things writhed their way onto the stone. I scrambled back, crab crawling as quickly as possible to get away from the creature in the pond.

Not looking where I was going, I slammed into a stalagmite and broke it off.

-1 hp

That hurt but no time to acknowledge it. Grabbing the broken off spar of stone I chucked it onto the tentacles. They wrapped around it and pulled the unsuspecting piece of stone under the water.

Focus. I pulled the cork from my bota and splashed water over my fingers, flickering a little on my face. Chanting the words and twisting my hands into the patterns I cast Snowcone. The ice ball appeared in my hands and I ran forward to the edge of the pond.

Holding the magical creation like it was an Olympic torch, I splashed one of my feet into the pond water. After mere seconds gray tentacles emerged, questing to wrap up my toes. I dropped the ice sphere into the small lake and ran.

The Snowcone spell hit the water and exploded. A rime of ice formed on the top of the pond and the tentacles went mad, flailing and thrashing about. I stood and drew my axe, creeping over to the edge of the tentacles range.

Stepping on one, I chopped it in half. The other continued to flail. It took me a couple of tries but I stomped on it and the axe fell. The end of the gray thing came away on the second chop.

The ice dispersed from the surface of a pond a moment later. A smooth, hard surface came to the top of the water. It looked like a snail shell but longer.

An eye extended on a tendril. It was yellow irised, with a long pupil similar to a cat. The thing looked at me, blinking. It continued to rise.

It was a nautilus. The long, slender shell protected the head of the cephalopod while the tendrils quested for food. Its beaked mouth came above the surface.

Then it sprayed ink at me. The dark cloud covered my face, burning. My hands clapped over my eyes and I screamed.

Trying to turn, I tripped over a rock and hit the ground, hard. It knocked the wind out of me. Wobbling, I got back onto my hands and knees, still trying to wipe the sludge out of my eyes. I tried crawling away, still screaming. One of the remaining tendrils wrapped around my ankle.

It pulled me back towards the pond. I rolled over onto my back and went for my axe. It was gone, fallen to the ground somewhere during my lurching retreat.

I slapped at my baldric, drawing the rabbit’s horn. Fingers twisted as I chanted, the horned bunny appeared with a pop. “Get him!” I screamed, gesturing in the general direction of the pond.

Scrubbing at my eyes I was steadily being dragged towards the water. I flailed around, blindly, with my right hand, still trying to wipe at the gunk with my left. I hit rock with my knuckles, then grabbed a stalagmite.

Putting that dwarven brawn to work I tried doing a one handed pull up, dragging the stupid nautilus out of the water. It didn’t work. So I put my other hand around the rock formation.

I PULLED! Another tentacle wrapped around my leg, tightening their grip. My arms bent, flexing. I stretched out, barely able to see the next stalagmite but I got a firm hand on it.

The monster was firmly wrapped around my legs, feeling like it was tearing flesh it pulled on them so hard. I kept pulling, looking back I could see the top of the shell breaking water. I heaved and its parrot-like beak came onto the stony lip of the pond.

My horned rabbit leapt at it. The bunny’s spire piercing one of the human-like eyes of the nautilus. Tentacles swarmed around the summoned beast and tensed. The rabbit screamed just before it vanished in a puff of magic.

I dipped my fingers into the pocket containing sulfur and let go of the rock formation. As I was being dragged back towards the nautilus’s mouth I chanted the words and went through the finger bending runes of Candleflame.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

It drew me in, parrot beak clomping in anticipation. The flame ignited, hovering just above my knuckles. My oversized dwarven fist clenched.

More of the gray sucker filled arms tried to wrap around me. Each one got punched. Pulled out of the water they burned. They gave off black, acrid smelling smoke with a fishy taste to it, but they burned. It smelled like someone overcooked calamari on the grill.

Once all the tentacles were out of the way I hit the nautilus in the face. Several times. I’m pretty sure I kept hitting it for a while after it was dead, but it pays to be certain.

I lay on the rock next to the pond, looking up at the low ceiling of the cavern. My chest heaved. The limp gray tentacles lay wrapped loosely around my legs. The body of the cephalopod lay right beside me, stinking.

After a moment, I sat up and found my axe. It had been flung a few feet away, partially buried in the sand. I cut off a tentacle. One more prize. I saw down, back against a stalagmite.

Sort of spaced out for a few minutes, I’m not aware of how much time passed. A hissing, clicking sound pulled me out of my stupor. It was close. I kept very still, straining my ears to hear more.

A spearcast away I caught sight of two bipedal creatures. They were reptiles, possibly smaller versions of the lizard men I trained with. They seemed of generally human proportions, wearing leather armor and wielding spears. The two hissed and clicked quietly to one another. I don’t think they’d spotted me.

Their mouths were long and slim, almost like caiman. Much like meilosh but they were much smaller and less bulky. It appeared they were about four feet tall and slim, but muscular. Eyes were wide set and high on their forehead, probably giving great peripheral vision. They leaned forward as they walked, both hands clutching their spears.

Intelligent foes in the dungeon really ramped up the difficulty level. I had to get one more prize and these dudes volunteered. Studying them, they moved lightly. I’m guessing they were quick. I probably couldn’t take them straight on.

Cool. Let’s not try to fight them directly. As quietly as I could, I got down on my hands and knees. That put me out of sight of them, but I thought it was worth the temporary blindness.

I crawled over to the pond and tried to slip into the water. We’ve all seen Navy SEALs do it in the movies and it doesn’t look that hard. I splashed like a fat guy doing a cannonball.

Ears burning in shame, I flattened out on the bottom of the pond. It wasn’t that deep here near the edge and I could hold my breath for a long time. I was certain the two lizard men were looking down into the water at this moment. They were probably trying to figure out if it was a fat fish that jumped up or a rock.

Once it started getting uncomfortable I slowly crawled along the lip of the little lake, just trying to create some space from where I’d splashed in. Moving several feet, I twisted around so I was sitting up on my knees with my face just below the surface. I broached so my eyes and nose were in the open air.

I breathed out SLOWLY, not blowing like a whale the way I wanted to. My eyes scanned for the lizard people. THERE! They were both standing right beside the nautilus, over by where I’d jumped in.

One of them poked the dead cephalopod with his spear. Their lips were moving. I was pretty sure they were talking to each other, but couldn’t be certain. Neither one was looking at the water. That gave me an idea.

I scooted over to the lip of stone that marked the edge of the small lake. Keeping my nose just above water, I knee walked over to where they stood, poking and examining the dead cuttlefish. I loaded my crossbow and let it bounce off my chest on the strap.

My hands already had water on them, so I didn’t need to do that. I spoke the words into the water. I said them slowly. This created bubbles, but very little actual sound. My fingers twisted into the runic shapes. Before long, I held a basketball sized ice ball.

Slipping close to the little lizard people, I surged up to my full height out of the water. Tossing the ice ball, it hit one of them on the head and burst downward. An ice pedestal covered nearly his whole body.

Spell cast, I grabbed my crossbow and seated the butt into the soft spot on my shoulder. I exhaled and loosed the bolt. HIT! I dropped the bow and rolled onto the rocky beach.

Grabbing my axe, the lizard man I hadn’t hit was running. His companion looked at me with wild eyes, largely frozen in place. I hacked down with my axe and ended him.

That’s the sixth prize! I did a quick victory dance, then cut off one of the now thawed lizard man’s hands. I grabbed the sled I’d made from the beetle and tied it around my waist. Stuffing the lizard hand into my bag, I quickly made my way back to where the dungeon began.

I reloaded the crossbow and scanned the route carefully. Making good time, but still trying to search for danger I reached the door without incident. I’d never had to knock before, but I pounded on it with my fist.

After a few moments, I heard the bolt slip and the door cracked open. It was Instructor Nils. “Hey Mike, did you finish up?” He asked, opening the door wide.

My grin nearly didn’t fit through the portal. “I did!” Stepping through, I helped him close the door and put the bar back in place. “I got all the prizes. One got away at the end but I’d already taken his friend, which put me up to the number I needed, so I didn’t think it was a big deal.”

“Great. Let me see?” Nills held out a hand. I reached into my bag and got him the beetle mandibles, the spider legs, ant lion mandible, nautilus tentacle, and finally the lizard man hand. I was feeling hugely triumphant as I handed it over.

Nills raised an eyebrow. “What’s this?” He held up the scaly hand.”

“That was my last prize.” I told him proudly. “I was surprised you populated the training dungeon with intelligent creatures, but they weren’t hard to take out. One got away, but as you see, I had already bagged my limit.”

“This came from the training dungeon?” Nills asked, sounding agitated. “You didn’t bring it in with you and try to cheat?”

“What?” I shook my head. “No way. I finished that dungeon fair and square. Weren’t you watching? I thought y’all were always watching.”

“You were the only one going through. Usually everyone is paused so the instructors can supervise the dungeon, but we were all off training.” The fortune teacher stood and starting pacing.

“I passed though, right?” I asked.

“You passed the test, but I fear you may have failed the course.” He said, stroking his chin.

“What?” I yelled. “What do you mean?”

He held up the hand. “There aren’t any tool users in the dungeon. This means something broke in.”