27)

Molly showed up in the morning.

She was dressed in a mostly yellow skin tight suit made of something I identified as Kevlar. It also had some thicker plates in a few spots. But not in the spots I thought would be the most likely to take a hit from a weapon. Maybe it was for a specific animal's attack?

Iris seemed impressed. “I was wondering if you were a serious rider. Was that modeled on the Bride from Kill Bill?"

The healer set down an old beat up looking bag. “Kill Bill? Maybe? Was that an old anime or something?”

The old woman's jaw dropped and she shuffled over to sit in the same chair she used with her computer. "Ow. That hurt more than when I hurt myself last week. An anime?"

Molly seemed relieved that she had only hurt Iris's feelings. "I'm sorry. I just picked it out since the color would make it easier for the Eamties to find me if tipped and slid off into a ditch. But it’s the toughest thing I have. It’s just too hot to wear normally at this time of year.”

From her bag she produced a cloth she wrapped around her head. Then a headband with a clear shield that covered her whole face. "I figured a face shield would keep them away from our eyes while still letting us see them, and I decided on my weapon of choice.”

She produced a narrow club that ended in a hoop with strands crisscrossing each other within the hoop.

Iris raised an eyebrow at her. “A tennis racket?”

The healer began to swing the racket back and forth as I looked up Tennis. It turned out to be a sport that knocked a ball back and forth rather than the lightweight air born creature that I had been guessing.

"Well, I figured it would be good for the first room. I can knock them out of the air, and knock them off you if I need to without hurting you." Then she turned it around in her hand to let her bang it against the ground with the edge of the loop. "Plus it's pretty tough. It should be more than enough to beat a squirrel to death.”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

She began to fiddle with her weapon. "I saw the news. Are we going to be okay down there?"

Iris nodded her head slowly. “Tark said that almost never happens with a person running a dungeon. That one developed on its own or got abandoned. Either way, it went wrong and someone is going to have to go down there and destroy it eventually.” She grinned briefly. “Not it.”

The information shared on her internet was completely unregulated. But some facts had become clear as the woman read off the each new stories the night before.

The goverment that ruled over Iris's nation, some sort of empire that had a president who ruled over many states, had closed off the entire area around the dungeon while they were figuring out what to do.

Which was a good thing since the survivors of the group that had found it claimed they had gotten their classes just by stepping in. Despite still being under the age of eighteen.

Iris had asked me about that the night before. With my notes I told her that "I never heard about anything like that. But it may be different for Earth"

Back home, we get our first class at birth. Infant. And the dungeons had guards on them to make people wait for their turns.

Now I had two ladies grimly nodding to each other as they prepared to risk their lives to find out if I could be trusted or not.

Iris was dressed in pretty much the same clothes she used to work out in. But with a faded blue long sleeved jacket made of some tough material on to protect her arms. She had also dug out a set of old worn white socks from a box of clothing in the basement which was all sized for someone larger than her. Probably male as well.

She didn’t bother with a weapon.

The two of them crept down the steps to the basement. Both already on guard. Then they paused at the top of the stairs. Buttercup crept up behind his mistress, for once not trying to trip anyone at the top of a flight of steps.

I guess all three of them were taking this seriously.

Molly let out a nervous laugh. “I can’t believe I’m this scared of squirrels.”

Iris just nodded and began going down the steps, pausing only for a moment at the entrance to the rodent rampage room.

Yeah, I named it. I wanted to commit to myself that it wasn’t going to be the only room for all that much longer.

The old woman stepped in and to one side, scanning the room and even looking up. Molly stepped in as well. "To the side girl. You watch for anything jumping down at us. I'll focus on kicking anything coming at us on the ground. We duck back out the door if they get to be too much.”

They stood there for a bit until Buttercup lazily walked past them and up to the trigger point of the room. The beast looked back at his mistress and twitched his tail. Iris nodded. “Here they come.”

The cat took off across the room and out the far side to the landing above the stairs that went nowhere.

The squirrels came out of the holes in the hollow trunks high up in the breaches. First one, then six more.

I guess magic beasts counted as Adventurers since Iris and molly should have only gotten five. I wonder how it knew the squirrels wouldn't activate until someone went across the halfway point?