The humans huddled miserably at the bottom of the stairs leading to the twenty-fourth floor. They had killed Aspen hours ago and were resting up for a push through his tier-three floors. Valens didn’t think they’d get that far, they had struggled a little against just Aspen after all. Still, they’d killed his boss with no one killed which was a decent performance, but they had taken several major injuries. Which was why they were now waiting on the hard stone steps as their companions healed up some. One of the adventurers was apparently something of a field medic, bandaging, and stitching up his fellow humans. All in all, Valens thought they’d be underway again in another few hours. It wasn’t like they could stay on the stairs forever, if nothing else they’d run out of food.

He also couldn’t see this particular group withdrawing quite yet. They seemed to be a bit proud of their status as tier three adventurers, too much so in his opinion. He looked over at Magnus and found the drake just starting to stir, Hey Magnus you awake all the way? He called over, as he returned his gaze to the humans.

No, but what do you want? Magnus yawned cavernously and scrapped his claws along the stone floor. It produced a horrible screeching sound as divots were carved into the solid rock floor.

Those humans, the tier three ones just made it past Aspen. How many floors do you want to bet they get through before they all die or run? He thought they’d make it two more floors tops, maybe three if they were lucky.

Oh, what are we betting on? The drake sounded vaguely interested as he leavered himself to his feet.

Why not those shiny rocks that humans like? Gold and jewels and such. He didn’t really create that sort of thing too often, the humans hardly needed more incentive to invade his dungeon. He preferred to let the boss rooms do their thing with loot, and not provide any extra on top of that. Speaking of loot, judging by the tiny collection of coins they had, the boss room hadn't been too generous to them. Granted they did have some silver, which was probably from Aspen’s room, which seemed fair they were the same tier as her at least.

Sure why not? The drake had a gleam in his eye as he expected, which made Valens a little nervous about this whole idea. Do you want to make the first bet then?

Okay. The core thought carefully for a second trying not to fall into whatever trap the drake was thinking of. I bet that they make it to floor twenty-two before they die. He felt like that was reasonable, they were tier three after all making it through almost two floors seemed fine.

Alright, I bet that they die or run away on the twenty-first floor and that they die to the dire hawks. Magnus grinned at that and Valens gritted his teeth. The hawks were a good guess, the birds were terrors of these floors, and he should have thought of that first.

Humm, well I bet that they lose at least one member to the orcs before retreating. He had to even the odds somehow and humans were rather skittish once they started dropping.

Alright, I’ll bet that at least half of them are killed before they get away. Magnus smiled as they went back and forth. Do you want to bet on who dies first now? Or should we figure out how much we’re betting?

I bet we both know who's going to die first.

Magnus nodded conspiratorially. The rapier guy.

Yup, that guy is annoying, it's kind of funny though. He’s definitely the least skilled though. That particular human had a habit of falling face-first into monsters, even if he had come out of the fight with Aspen more or less unscathed. So as far as the bets maybe one gem per win? They’re pretty easy to make but I don’t want to spend all of my time making them.

Magnus nodded benevolently. I’ll just have to beat you repeatedly, to amass a giant horde then. The drake cackled crazily, lifting his talons towards the ceiling.

You alright Magnus? If you really wanted gold or gems that much I would have just made them for you. They’re not that hard to make as I said. The core was a little concerned about his friend losing it. Maybe he needed more people to talk to. Valens was a dungeon core so the relative isolation didn’t bother him but maybe Magnus needed to socialize a bit. Schemes to get Magnus to go make friends in town quickly imploded as he remembered that a giant scaly lizard or even a small scaly lizard would be rather out of place around town, especially if he started talking.

The core’s musings were interrupted by Magnus as the drake laughed again. This time a more normal chuckle, made Valens worry less about his mental health. It's no fun if you just make it for me, there’s got to be stakes. By the way, what do you want if I lose?

I’ll just make myself a few gems as well, and we can start using those to go back and forth. That way hopefully I’ll only need to make new ones occasionally.

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Unless you lose all the time that is. Magnus started cackling again as he thought about all of the gold and gems he was going to win.

Alright what’s going on here, is this a drake thing? Why are you so up in arms about the shinies?

Magnus looked a little sheepish as he settled back down. Well maybe a little bit, drakes and wyverns tend to like shiny things and collecting things. This usually leads to a strong interest in collecting valuables. In my case, I usually like collecting knowledge, but I do have an appreciation for the more typical collectibles.

You mean the shinies. The core said flatly.

Yes, I mean the shinies. Only a little sheepish about the admission.

Valens chuckled at his friend. Alright moving on then it looks like the humans are finally moving. The drake nodded and the two of them watched as the adventurers made their first steps into the new floor.

The core was quite pleased with how upset the humans were. The arid floor wasn’t a surprise, they had taken a look before deciding to rest, but they still didn’t seem too happy at the abrupt change in extreme temperatures. They still weren’t in much danger, he didn’t think at least, a mage might be in danger of overheating or heat exhaustion but chi users would be fine. The view of this floor was quite spectacular if he did say so himself. Instead of a flat field of sand, there were dunes breaking up the landscape and letting him hide the oasis quite neatly.

The hills also gave the impression that the floor was deserted as most of his monsters avoided climbing them. Making yourself an easy target for the dire hawks was not the brightest idea, even the orcs had figured out not to tempt fate in that regard, most of the time at least. All in all, it was probably a little unnerving for the humans, they knew there had to be monsters about but they couldn’t see any yet. Some of them stared suspiciously at the ground as they started walking through the sand. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any burrowing monsters to use on this floor, maybe he would eventually though, something to look forward to.

The humans made their way sliding and stumbling as much as walking over the first dune and looking around. They still couldn’t see any of the oases he had hidden, those were a little farther into the floor but they did see a few monsters wandering the sand from their vantage point. They also saw the assorted plants that clung tenaciously to the sandy soil, an eclectic collection of thorny vegetation. Having the entire floor be just sand would have been boring, if not for them then for him, he had to make the whole thing in any case.

While Valens had been distracted by the humans had decided to move again. Sliding their way down the dune towards a group of hobgoblins nearby. Unfortunately for his green monsters, there weren’t any orcs with them, and that meant the battle was a bit of a foregone conclusion. A few minutes and several decapitated monsters later and the humans were arguing again. This time it was over where they would find water, a shocking sensible concern on this sort of floor, and one he hadn’t expected to come up until at least one of them ran out of water. Maybe he wasn’t giving them enough credit, water was the natural concern when you were in a desert, at least that’s what Magnus had said.

It took a bit of wandering for the adventurers to find the first tier three monster, and this time it was a group of three orcs and half a dozen hobgoblins. Ha, there we go I was wondering how long it would take. The core was feeling a bit smug.

Magnus glanced over towards the core and growled. Don’t count your eggs before they hatch Valens, there’s no way such a small group is going to drive them off. He kept quiet but the core was grinning internally, after all, if they had taken injuries against just one tier-three monster they would be in trouble against three of them.

The humans attacked first, the archer shooting one of the orcs in the shoulder. The monster just grunted in annoyance before yanking out the shaft and charging. The rest of the green monsters followed right behind him waving an eclectic collection of sticks, and sharp rocks. He needed to properly arm them at some point, it would make them a lot more dangerous.

The first hobgoblin fell with a rapier between the eyes, and the next had its head split almost in two by a massive downward ax swing. Then the orcs caught up and things became a little more interesting. The first swung a branch at the rapier guy, who blocked it but there was so much force behind the blow it didn’t do him much good. The human went tumbling head over heels into a nearby dune, and the core grumbled to himself a bit as he levered himself back up with only bruises to show from his short fight. If the orc had had an actual weapon that might have been one dead human right there.

The other orcs charged forward eager to repeat the success of their leader, however it didn’t go as well for them. The first took a swing at the ax wielder, who ducked under the massively telegraphed swipe. Letting the branch whip over his head the human came back with a sharp swipe across the monster’s throat. The orc fell back choking on its own blood, as the third staggered with a dagger buried in its knee. It was still alive though and swung its branch down as hard as it could only to be caught by an upraised shield. The core was mildly impressed as the human briefly held his own against the formidable strength of the orc before the branch snapped like a twig. Again Valens cursed the lack of proper weapons before an arrow sprouted from his last orc’s eye, and it collapsed to the ground. After that, it was little more than a massacre as the hobgoblins scattered in every direction.

Well, you were right Magnus looks like that wasn’t quite enough to take them down.

Yep. The drake had the good grace not to sound too smug. I think you forget sometimes just how unusual Aspen is as a boss monster and as a fae. Most adventurers are probably used to fighting things exactly like the orcs, monsters that use physical attacks. Having a tiny mage attack you though would be more than a little unusual.

Fine, fine, so if they’re more used to the monsters on this floor do you think they’ll make it to Sora? He didn’t think they’d be able to kill his final boss, she had proven herself an apt combatant more often than not, but you never knew.

I kind of doubt it, but they might. There are quite a few tier-three monsters around now, and if they run into too many we might wipe the entire party. The drake laid his head on his talons as the pair continued to watch the humans venture deeper into the dungeon.