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As the old woman dithered, first Molly then Buttercup leaped to the first slab of stone. Molly then turned and held her hands out to catch Iris.

The old woman got an irritated look on her face. “Don’t… Don’t treat me like some invalid. I can jump that far, it’s too narrow up there with you and the cat. Give me some room.”

Molly looked a little hurt but nodded as she took another look at how much room she and the cat were taking. "I'm sorry, it's just that if you do lose your balance it's narrow enough here that you would end up hitting the walls a few times before you ended up in the water. Here, I'll get out of your way."

The healer leaped to the next slab while Buttercup settled down to sit and stare at his mistress with a shrill taunting "Meow."

I shrugged. Or maybe I was reading too much into him being a cat. After all, he was still just an animal. An irritating but dumb animal.

Iris edged up to the gap and tensed up before she took a leap that would have been at best a large step for me in life. To be fair though, at her age I would have been only twenty years away from being as fragile as someone with her Health score.

Plus there was a cat just waiting to slink over at the last moment right to the spot she was jumping for.

The old woman grunted a bit as she landed, then glanced up at the concerned looks on the other two's youthful faces. "Oh stop it. I should have joined a bridge club and recruited from people my own age if you two are going to act like that." She glanced down. "Worst that would have happened is a room temperature bath."

Actually, I had checked the water and found out that despite sitting in an underground pit it didn't get noticeably colder down here. My disappointment led me to figure out I could create water at any temperature. Including ice, which had melted before they got down here. It hadn't made the water that much colder, but being able to make ice at will would come in handy when I made new challenges.

Ernesto just nodded as Molly sighed. Turning back to the door he peered through the crack. "I can see a couple of benches and a shelf all around up high. There's another door on the other side, but it looks weird."

Iris waved her hand around impatiently. “Well break the door down, it’s not like we’re going to take Tark by surprise by being quiet.”

Molly started to object but the boy took a step back to the edge of the pit and threw himself into the door, partially breaking the boards I had used to make it and ripping it free of the hinges set into the relatively old wood. Along with the supports for the crossbar. I had to admit the kid had some heft to him.

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He also lost his balance and fell into the room. Which activated all three of the squirrels which had been hiding behind the crenelated wall above.

Fortunately the drab green long sleeved jacket he was wearing kept the three squirrels that landed on his back and began clawing and biting at him from doing much. The half brick which hit the back of his head as he struggled to get to his feet, however, got a solid hit.

Molly flinched as her brick made contact. “Sorry...”

Iris yelled, "Make room, coming through." As she took two jumps in rapid succession before she reached the ledge and stumbled into the wall. Grabbing the side of the door she began kicking squirrels off of Ernesto. Getting two of them before the swearing large boy could roll to his side, catching the squirming last beast between his back and the side of the door.

The old woman yelled at him. “Keep it pinned, Molly will get it!” As she stepped over the boy and stumbled into the room muttering, “That shoulder is going to end up so bruised..."

Molly took the last jump and reared back with her screw spiked racket over her head and swung down at the wide eyed boy, only to have the upper edge of it catch on the door. As she froze for a moment trying to figure out what went wrong, the cat slipped past her and pinned the squirrel down with one paw before taking its head in his jaw, twisting and biting down at the same time to a crunching noise that made the beast go still.

With the dead creature's lifeless head in his jaws, Buttercup gave Ernesto a very deliberate look before tearing the head away from the pinned body.

Iris called out. “Could use some help in here!’

The cat took a short leap to the boy's face and from there into the room, followed by Molly. The benches turned out to give the madly dashing about squirrels excellent cover beneath them and adding a cat and another person into the relatively small room only made things worse. It wasn’t as if the little furry beasts were more dangerous under those circumstances, just more aggravating.

Iris managed to kick one off of a wall, stunning it long enough for Molly to finish it off. While Ernesto clipped one with his club, slowing it down long enough for Buttercup to catch it.

As the cat held it helplessly pinned down and batted at its head, Iris slipped her foot in between the two of them and pressed down until something crunched. “Playtime later my sweet boy.”

As they caught their breath, Molly began looking around the room and finally started to poke at a few spots on the inner walls, having figured out the outer curving wall was the limit of my reach and therefore didn’t hold any secrets. Smart, but she didn’t really understand how the dungeon worked.

I could still have some kind of secret door on the outer wall, I just couldn't have any dungeon creatures waiting on the other side. Treasure or some of my summons could be out there, or I could put in a curved wall within my reach since she couldn’t know for sure how far out I could go.

Unless she figured it out to be twice the size of the room above. I don't know how smart she actually is. Normally intelligence ended up being a bit of a dump stat for healers, but I don't think it's the same on Earth. Healers here still have to do a lot of their work without magic and that requires a lot of studying. Just consider all the different names they have for different kinds of healers.

In any case, she satisfied herself that the wall was just a wall and the boy meanwhile squeezed past her and the old woman who was taking the chance to sit down on one of the benches, holding the cat on her lap.

Looking at the door, the boy looked at it up and down. He then poked at it with his club, then again harder while looking at the bottom of the door, figuring out the hinges were at the bottom from what little give there was in the door. He then covered the peephole with his club, then his fingertip before looking through it and grunting.

Molly wandered over and gave him an inquisitive look. He pointed at the peephole, "It could be a trap." Frowning she looked at it herself. "Oh, right."

The boy reached over to one of the shower knobs as he waved her back Then glanced at her when she frowned and remained in place. Grunting in resignation he began to slowly turn the knob. Both of them jumped when the deadbolt pulled free of the door and dropped making a clanking sound inside the wall.

After a moment, the healer turned the other knob several times to get the wire to start coiling around the axis from the other direction until it too pulled out the opposite bolt.

The door slowly tilted forward and slammed down over the pit. Iris slowly clapped. “Good job, good job everyone.” She stood up from her bench dumping Buttercup from her lap with an annoyed growl. “Looks like a big room finally. Let’s find out what fresh hell Tark has for us now.”