We hit the ground again and, this time, did not stumble. We were in a vast cavern filled with grass and had sunlight in the sky. You could smell the grass and feel a breeze blowing across us. The cavern walls seemed to go on for miles, but it looked like it was limited in size.

"This does not seem possible," Vreek said with a grunt. "How can sunlight be in a cavern with wind and grass?"

"Magic!" quipped Turk. "Come on. We need to move and find the next portal."

"Any idea where it might be?" Dirk asked.

We spun around looking and realized we had no clue.

"Let's go straight and see what we find. We can always loop around the walls later."

Everyone agreed with me, and we started running away from the portal.

As we ran, we occasionally saw a small animal of sorts. It was like a fox but was yellow and did not attack us. When one was directly in our path, I picked it up as I ran by, and it yelped and tried to bite me. Holding it behind the head, I thumped its skull.

I was not prepared for the gore that exploded from its head when I did that. Its head cavity erupted, and goo landed on me and Vreek, who had run up closer behind me to see it.

Dirk and Turk were laughing, and I realized this must be the first-level creatures. They were beyond weak to us, and I tossed it back to Vreek, who caught it. He sniffed it as he ran and took a small bite which surprised me.

"This is pretty good," Vreek declared after swallowing the first bit and taking a second bigger bite. After he swallowed that one, he offered it to us but we all passed on it. "Tastes like something familiar. I'm just not sure what."

I heard Turk snicker and say chicken.

We continued running, and soon the wall came into view, and I saw no portal anywhere ahead.

"Turk?"

A few seconds later, Turk called out, "Go right."

I turned right, and about five minutes later, I saw a green portal pulsing in the distance.

I glanced back, and Vreek had discarded the creature. A few minutes later, we found ourselves in the next level.

"Blue, green, pink and brown," Turk called out. "That is the first four colors, right?"

I nodded, and we kept moving. This was the fourth level, We encountered mushroom-like creatures that attacked us. I had run by, not realizing they would suddenly one jumped at me. A simple swipe of my hand had turned it into mush, but I realized we must be getting into a part of the labyrinth that now attacked those inside. There was a rare node that looked like something someone might mine, but we did not bring any pick axes or anything.

"Agro, huh?" Dirk called out.

"What is agro?" Vreek asked. I could feel the frustration he felt when we used words he did not understand.

"It means the creatures here will attack us on their own," Dirk replied. "The last few levels, nothing attacked us. Now it looks like things will start."

"Agro," Vreek repeated. "Any other words I need to know?"

Dirk and Turk laughed, and neither one of them answered him.

"I'll try to make sure we tell you of any other words we use that you wouldn't know," I called back. "A lifetime with these two had taught us to talk in short words to help make fights faster."

Vreek grunted, and I took that as his approval.

The next portal was orange, and it led to an empty colosseum-like room. There is a yellow portal about twenty yards away.

"Boss room?" Turk asked.

"Looks that way," Dirk replied.

"Guess that means there is a party already inside."

Turk was right. The lower levels were probably going to respawn if they were not a big threat. The bosses would not. So would a boss be every five levels? How deep until we hit a zone where mobs did not respawn? I shook my head. I was thinking about this as a game or show. I had to remember that, at some point, this was going to get hard, and we needed to focus.

"Ok!" I yelled out louder than I intended. I turned and faced the three of them but was focused mainly on my boys. "This isn't a game. We have to stop thinking about it like that. At some point, we are going to run into a group of dwarves. I don't know when or what level they will be, but at some point, it will happen. When it doe,s we need to be ready to take them out. We cannot let them use their crystal. We need to stay hidden as long as possible."

I cracked my neck and closed my eyes for a moment. Opening them up, I gave my serious face.

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"When we get into later levels, we need to try and not kill any more creatures than we have to. Bosses only. The more we leave, the more they will have to fight through. At some point, they will figure it out. By then, I want to be deep enough that we actually have to fight whatever in here is strong enough to give us a run for our money."

"Run for our..." Vreek started, but I held my hand up and cut him off.

"If someone sees something that looks like we should try and harvest it, say so. We have two backpacks, and that is not a lot. We will have to eat what we can and save the hearts we have now and the ones we get from the group in here as long as we can. Any questions?"

"Run for our money?" Vreek asked.

"It means it will be a tough fight. If we die, they take all of our stuff," Dirk informed Vreek.

"If we die, who cares about our stuff? And why would animals and creatures here want our stuff?"

Turk and Dirk both moaned.

"It's fine. There will be some tough battles. Turk, if I tell you to break the gem, do it. Don't argue. If it looks like we will die, use your best judgment."

Turk nodded and tapped the pouch on his right back hip.

"Let's go."

"Ok, it looks like the pattern is blue, green, pink, brown, orange, yellow, purple, rainbow healing floor, red, and black."

Turk was good at these kinds of games. He had already memorized the portal colors as we entered the thirteenth floor.

"I guess floor eleven was the floor that marks no more creatures after they were killed," Dirk reminded us. Again.

I was frustrated as the lack of creatures made it difficult to gauge how difficult they were becoming. On the twelfth floor, we searched the entire floor,r and it appeared they had killed off everything in there. I knew everyone was bored, and we had been jogging for a while along these floors. I was not sure when we might actually run into the party that had come already.

Floor fifteen was cleared, so again no boss there. Sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen were also empty. When we hit the red portal for nineteen, I groaned when I saw after a few minutes, there were no creatures again.

As I jogged along, I heard Turk tsk me.

"Dwarves!" He called out as we slowed down and hid behind a rock on our left.

This floor was like a rocky desert. It was hot, and the wind blew sand and grit all over you. Coming from the previous floor, which had water and sheep-like creatures that stood there while you killed them, this place was not a good vacation spot. Giant rocks the size of a house dotted the landscape, but there were not enough to block Turk's uncanny ability to see everything.

"There are at least ten of them," Turk whispered as we gathered. They are at least three hundred yards away."

"How does he see that far?" Vreek asked me.

I shrugged and had no answer. I was just glad he could.

"Thoughts on how to proceed?" I asked.

Dirk and Turk looked at each other, and neither seemed to have any great ideas. Vreek did not look ready to offer up a plan either.

"Come on, you three," I muttered. "You must have some idea of what we can do."

"Are we trying to kill them all at the same time? Are we waiting for them to attack the boss?" Dirk asked. "I mean they might just be the low-level group. Will they even attempt the boss? What happens if they stop right here and another group comes in for floor twenty and higher?"

Turk nodded and pointed at Dirk.

"He is right. If they leave, then we miss out on the hearts, and when the next group comes in will wonder why level twenty was attacked." Turk seemed ready for a fight. "I would rather strike them all dead and attempt the boss now. If we can kill these dwarves, then we should be able to take out the boss as well."

"Yeah, and if we try to go into the boss room when they do, they will be ready to break their crystal versus in here!" Dirk exclaimed as he interrupted his brother.

I held up my hand and closed my eyes.

Both of them were right. We needed to fight on our terms right now, and we needed to see what kind of creature a boss was before we got any deeper. I would hate to find out the hard way we were not prepared for what was ahead.

I opened my eyes and smiled.

"Ok. Let's fight, and here is what I have in mind."

Turk and Dirk were staying behind the dwarves who were mining a rock in the middle of this area. Vreek and I ran off to the side, using the boulders and the blowing sand to hide from the party. As we ran, we stumbled upon a pack of what looked like red wolves. The four of them died from one hit from each of our swords. Vreek grinned at me, and I could tell he was excited that we had actually killed something in a while.

We were on the clock. Turk would keep an eye on them and light off a green light in the sky when it was time to attack. He would slowly add a few more and bring them all to land near the ground on the side of the dwarves, taking their eyes off the side we would attack from. Once we engaged, Turk would launch his arrows and help from the ranged side.

Two more lights appeared, and they darted across the sky, coming down. I knew it was getting closer, and I could tell where the pack of dwarves should be. I could hear some shouting, I thought, over the wind, but it was hard to tell with an earful of sand.

Two more lights appeared, and the dots continued dropping closer to the ground. Turk could see me if he added those two. That meant we were a lot closer. I raised my hand and motioned the direction of the lights. Vreek darted off to the right a little, and we got some space between us so we could strike down as many as possible when we ambushed them.

The lights were only about thirty feet off the ground and seemed to be dancing as they lowered. I could see the pack of dwarves and heard shouting. I made out a few words like fairies and treasure but could not make out any other words in the storm. Three of them started to move off towards the lights that were almost to the ground now.

We had thirty yards to go. My legs took huge strides, and my sword was out to the side. I could feel it calling to me for blood. It had not really been used for anything besides chopping up trees in a while, and it was ready to kill. I felt it trying to convince me of the need to massacre all who would stand before us.

My speed quickened, and as my steps could finally be heard over the wind, the sword swung, taking the head off of the first dwarf kneeling over a backpack of stuff that he had been holding. I felt like death, I was death as I moved through the two next to me, heads coming off within seconds of each other.

I saw Vreek take off the head of another to my right. The one closest to him started to turn and say something but got a sword through his throat.

The other two left near us were about twenty feet away and turned and saw us as we struck them down. They started to shout and draw a weapon. One was reaching for something. It looked like a pouch on his side. Just like the one, Turk kept our gem in.

“That one!” I shouted as I saw the fear in his eyes. “Don’t let him break it!”