I cast fear as I gazed at the two of them. I had not used it in a while, but I hoped it would work on them. We just needed a few more seconds to reach them.

Both of them thankfully froze mid-movement. Vreek and I descended upon them, removing their heads like the other five.

The three who were standing out near the lights exploded in gore as Turk fired three arrows at the group. They never saw what was coming for them.

Dirk and Turk made it to us a minute after all the carnage stopped. Vreek immediately turned and cut hearts out of the seven bodies near us.

"It's not fair," I heard Dirk complaining as they arrived. "I had to play guard duty while the three of you get to have all the fun."

"You will get a turn, I promise!" Turk exclaimed as he jogged up, smiling at how well that went off.

"What do you think? Everything go according to plan?" Turk called out.

I nodded and motioned to the bodies and Vreek.

“We need to get their hearts, and then I want to pile their bodies up in different places near some of the wolf-like things out there and see if they will eat them. I would prefer it not to look so obvious about what we did."

"Gather the heads, and I can burn them up."

"How about you two go see if you can recover a heart from those three bodies you exploded, and we will go from there."

Turk grimaced, and Dirk laughed.

"I hope they did not destroy those hearts," I heard Vreek shout at me over the wind. "They are too precious for us to waste!"

I nodded and joined him in harvesting the hearts. I felt refreshed during the battle. The sword gave me energy every time I ended a life. Putting Light Drinker away, it felt like I was tearing off a scab. It hurt. I wanted to let the sword fill its thirst. It wanted me to let it fills its thirst.

Only one heart was salvageable from the bodies Turk had destroyed. It gave us eleven hearts. If needed, we could quarter or cut them in half and use them as a healing item. I did not want to waste one, but I felt we needed to be at least ready for this first boss.

These dwarves were not a challenge, but we had also struck them down from behind. They did not have a chance to attack us back. Had it been a fair fight, would any of us have gotten hurt?

"That was a good use of your fear," Vreek stated, breaking my wandering mind. He handed me the pouch he pulled from the one who had been reaching for it.

Inside was a broken blue gem that did not sparkle anymore. It appeared he had been the keeper of the gem.

"That was closer than I thought."

Vreek nodded and motioned to the two bodies. "I doubt they could have made believers about two goblins being in the labyrinth, but it is better this way."

"How do we want to deal with their stuff?" I wondered out loud.

"Go through it, see if there is anything good. The rest we leave and make it look like the creatures did this."

Vreek was right. We did not want to take everything.

Once all the heads were burned, we took the bodies and scattered them around near some wolves. Two bodies were kept near the stuff, and Vreek tore the limbs off and took bites from the neck and sockets to make it look like a creature had done it. He put the pouch with the broken gem a few feet away, hoping it would look like they failed to break it in time.

Digging through the stuff, Dirk found a box that matched a key one of the dwarves had inside his pocket. Inside were two rings. We left the box open and kept the key while taking both rings. We had no clue what they were, but Turk had said he felt they were magical.

"How are we ever going to figure out what these items do?" Dirk asked. "Just put them on and hope we don't turn into something?"

I laughed and shrugged.

"I'll ask Brar and see if he can help. Take only one of each ore for now and leave the rest."

Once we had finished collecting the few supplies, the water, and some of their meat, we started searching for the portal to the twentieth floor. It took us a few more hours, and we managed not to kill too many wolf packs before we stood outside the glowing black portal.

"It's pulsing more than before," Dirk pointed out. "I guess that means the boss is still alive."

I nodded and handed them a quarter piece of the heart from one of the dwarves Dirk had killed in their sleep.

"Seems a bit overkill if you ask me," Dirk stated as he popped the piece in his mouth.

"Maybe, but I would rather make sure we all live through the first of these bosses," I replied. "Turk, be ready with the gem, just in case."

Turk nodded and gently tapped the pouch.

"Alright. Let's go."

We all reached out and touched the black portal.

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Standing in a giant cavern with spikes on the top and bottom of the floor, I scanned the room and heard Dirk curse.

"Giant hairy dwarf balls!"

I saw what he was looking at.

A fifteen-foot-tall spider hung from the ceiling on the other side of the cavern. There were webs and cocoon pods all on that side of the room. The floor had thick stone spikes that mainly served as a blocker to an open room, and the top spikes might fall if knocked down or be used by the spider to move faster along the ceiling.

"Thoughts?" I asked.

A second later, a bolt flew past me towards the spider, with another one close behind it.

I started to shout at Turk but saw the explosion of goo and hairy spider bits fly through the air from his first shot. When the second arrow struck, anything still held together was blown apart, and a husk of a spider was smoking for a moment.

"What the hell, son!" I shouted as I turned and looked at Turk.

"I figured I would try," Turk said as he shrugged. "Level twenty doesn't seem that dangerous, especially compared to mobs outside."

I groaned and rubbed my hands along my face for a few seconds. Had he been wrong, who knows what had happened?

"Seems anti-climatic," Dirk stated as his eyes lit up. "There is a chest now, though!"

I turned around and saw the spider stuff was starting to vanish, and a chest had appeared in the room. A blue portal had also appeared about twenty yards behind it.

I glanced at Vreek, who was still standing there in shock. His brain was trying to take in everything he had just witnessed. We acted like all this was normal, but it was not for him.

"Where did the spider go?" Vreek asked as he glanced around the room.

"It's how these things work according to our world. Kill the boss, the body sometimes stays or vanishes, and treasure appears."

Vreek looked at Dirk in disbelief. He knew we had ideas about how this all worked from stuff in our world, but seeing it in person was different, even after all the legends and stories he had heard.

"Turk obliterated it completely. How is that possible?" Vreek gasped.

Turk tapped his chest.

"It's Dad's fault. The heart he gave me put my magic in overdrive. I could feel the power growing more than usual, so I decided to see how much it would do. That was probably twice as strong compared to usual."

Vreek shook his head, and I let him be while I inspected the chest.

Walking over, I saw that the chest was made of bronze. It had some ornate carvings on it. Touching it caused it to pop open. I peered inside and felt Dirk breathing over my shoulder.

"Is that a bracer? Like a bracer one of us can wear? What's the loot rules, Dad?"

I groaned and picked up the bracer from the chest. As I lifted the leather bracer, the chest started to dissolve until it was gone.

I turned around and looked at Dirk, who was bouncing on his feet like a kid in a candy store about to get a treat. It felt cool to my touch, and the leather was a soft forest green. Did the loot change base on what race killed a boss?

I decided to do what every good party leader would do with the first loot drop.

"I'll hold it till I figure it out."

Dirk groaned, and I saw Turk enjoying it too much.

Vreek looked like a goblin in headlights. He was still taking it all in.

"Give me a minute. I'm going to ask Brar if the ring will work."

"Mother of virgin elf tits!" Brar exclaimed. "You really just killed a guardian in the dwarven labyrinth?"

"Yes, and I need help figuring out what to do with the items we get. How do I know what they do? I would not have known how to use my bracelet if you had not told me."

I could hear Brar mumbling to himself. He did this for a few minutes and I finally could not take it anymore.

"Anything?"

"Hold on! I just sent a letter to the King! I do not think he will get it soon. It may take half a day. You need to prepare yourself, Zolb. The King may finally contact you."

The King? The actual Goblin King would reach out to me?

I glanced down at the ring on my finger and gently brushed it with one of my fingers. I had wondered what might be worthy of him contacting me.

"Are you listening?"

I realized I was lost in my thoughts again and shook my head.

"Kind of. So the King may reach out to me. In the meantime, what should I do about the stuff that drops? Would any of it hurt us to wear?"

A few seconds passed, and Brar finally answered with a sigh.

"I do not expect it should. Items from the guardians were always fabled as good things. I believe your sword is from a guardian. Use them unless something bad happens or the King contacts you and tells you to stop."

"Ok."

I reached into the backpack and pulled out the bracer.

"Vreek, come here."

Vreek came closer, and I held out the bracer to him.

"You want me to take something from here?" he asked as his hand shook a few inches from the bracer. "I do not think I am worthy of such a thing."

I looked at Vreek and saw the powerful warrior I knew on the verge of a mental breakdown.

"Vreek, look at me."

He glanced up and stared at my eyes.

"If it weren't for you, we would not be here today."

"That is not true. You and your son...."

"Vreek, stop," I interrupted. "You took us under your wing and kept us alive when my foolish pride and plans would have gotten us killed. We have had this discussion before. You deserve this just as much as the rest of us. Consider this first piece a reward for serving the King well in helping us become who we are."

Vreek stood there, still inches away from the bracer. His eyes saw my face. He knew I would not change my mind. He snapped out of his funk and bowed his head a little.

"I will wear it with pride till the day I die."

I nodded and let go of the bracer as he took it from me. We all watched as he slipped it on and it resized to fit his forearm.

"Dwarf Balls!" Dirk shouted, "He has horns!"

Vreek snatched his hands up to his head and felt his skull.

Dirk and Turk started laughing, and I shook my head and chuckled a little.

Vreek growled and then started laughing, also.

"I will owe you again for that," he stated, pointing his finger at Dirk.

"Feel different or anything else?" Dirk replied with a smile. "Stronger or faster or uglier?"

Vreek shook his head as he rubbed the bracer with his hand.

"No. I feel no different."

"It doesn't matter," I interjected. "We need to start moving through the floors. We have no idea how soon the dwarves will be here."

"What happened?" Brar asked.

I groaned.

"Sorry, I forgot you were there a moment. Nothing happened other than the bracer changing size to fit his arm."

"Well, that tells you it is magical. I will not keep you. Just be ready for when the King contacts you."

"Are you sure he will?"

"I would bet my life on it."