Chapter Ten: Don’t be greedy, Don’t rush in and Don’t look back.

The group took an hour to rest and recover after their ordeal with the zombies, luckily they seemed to have killed all the ones close by for the time being and they were left undisturbed while they rested.

The fight had had a dramatic effect on the group’s levels and while none of the Zombie Husks had been above level five, there had been a lot of them. Everyone had at least gained two levels, and Peter had gained the most, going from level four to level eight.

Rory quickly checked his notifications.

Ding – your Dungeon Party has defeated [Zombie Husk] experience earned reduced due to being in a group.

Rory had dozens of notifications like this and he was surprised to find that even the zombies he had killed solo had earned him reduced experience, as experience must be split while in a1 dungeon.

Ding – Class: Disciple of the Arcane has reached level 11 – 10 stat points awarded.

Ding – Class: Disciple of the Arcane has reached level 12 – 10 stat points awarded.

He had only gained two levels during the fight, clearly the low levels of the zombies hindering his experience gain, no matter the quantity of them.

The fight with the zombies highlighted that while his magic was still potent in defeating them, with the smoke his fire caused and with him still being unable to cast his lightning magic he had to rely more on his physical skills rather than his magical ones, at least during this dungeon.

With a sigh, Rory placed five points each into strength, dexterity, endurance, and vitality.

With Peter gaining a fancy new sword, his spear had been donated to Rory, so that everyone now had a physical weapon. Once again, the group proceeded into the tunnel.

The going was even slower than the first time. A small haze of smoke still remained in the tunnel, further restricting the illumination given off by Rory’s flame.

While a good number of zombies had turned into ash from the flames, a number hadn’t and posed obstacles to be climbed over. Eventually, they cleared the field of now permanently dead zombies and came across a blocked doorway. A giant stone door stood closed in front of them. No visible handles or hinges could be seen.

To either side of the doorway were two more tunnels which both ended in dead ends, with nothing of note to be found.

The door had a massive mosaic scattered across its surface. There didn’t appear to be a clear picture or a reasoning to the order of the mosaic tiles. If anything, it looked like a large jigsaw that someone was in the process of completing.

Surprisingly, it was Matthew that noticed this first and with childlike excitement, he rushed to stand in front of the door and reached out to touch one of the tiles.

As soon as his finger tips touched the stone, an electric current raced from the tile to the rest of the room, causing several things to happen at once.

First, a barrier appeared, separating Matthew from the rest of the group. Second, a modern looking siren descended from the ceiling and began wailing in an aggravating tone. And lastly, an egg timer appeared next to the door and commenced draining.

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Emily quickly reacted to the siren and, with quick aim, let loose an arrow that flew through the air and smashed the siren to pieces, silencing it.

The group, excluding Matthew, waited nervously to see what the siren was designed to attract. however after five minutes nothing had appeared. Matthew had used this time resourcefully and had already made a good start in solving the jigsaw.

“I bet the side tunnels were full of zombies too that were supposed to attack us once the siren went off,” Rory reasoned.

With nothing to fight and with no way to help Matthew, the rest of the party simply waited and watched as he continued his puzzle.

Half an hour later, Matthew had completed the jigsaw. Ample time still remained in the egg timer. As soon as the mosaic completed, the barrier vanished and the stone door sunk into the floor.

The room beyond became visible, and it was revealed to be a small stone room devoid of all furniture, with only a stone doorway at the end. The only thing of note was a lavishly decorated chest set in the dead centre of the room.

Seeing the chest, Matthew once again headed towards it. however, an arm grasped his forearm, stopping him as he reached out to touch the box.

“Don’t be an idiot, Matthew, it’s clearly another trap. Treasure chests don’t just appear out of nowhere.” Alex reprimanded the man.

Embarrassed at his scolding, Matthew simply shrugged and took several steps away from the chest.

Now that Alex was the only one close to the chest, he proceeded to search for booby traps. No visible wires could be found, neither any pressure plates. Satisfied that no obvious traps could be seen, Alex drew back his spear and, with a strong thrust, stabbed the chest...

However, instead of hitting a solid object, the wood of the chest indented and with it came a gurgling scream. Thick tentacle like arms sprouted from the chest, the lid itself appearing to be its mouth with razor-sharp teeth descending from their concealment.

The party tensed, waiting to be attacked but bizarrely, the chest just scampered away, but not before Rory had a chance to analyse it.

Mimic of greed (inanimate)– level 23

Description: mimics come in a range of sizes and shapes. Mimics are ambushes predators at heart and though they show a rudimentary intelligence, they think nothing of spending weeks for prey to fall into their laps... or mouth. Mimics have a strong affinity with the deadly sins, mimics of greed will take the form of items of great value. The mimic in question specialises in assuming the appearance of inanimate objects.

Rory quickly relayed the description to the group, and they were glad an attack never came, what with the mimic being so much higher level than everyone else.

Confused but not questioning their lucky break, they quickly walked into the next room. The room in question turned out to be another tunnel.

As they were travelling along the tunnel, Rory swore he heard faint echoing footsteps behind them. Every step he took, a third would echo behind him. Glancing back, he saw nothing of note.

They carried on for several more minutes before Rory heard the footsteps again. This time he motioned for everyone to stop and the echoing footsteps again stopped out of sync with himself. Convinced that someone was following behind, he looked back again and kept staring for a full ten minutes before he was finally convinced to move on again by his impatient teammates.

Carrying on again, it wasn’t long before the footsteps sounded up again, for every two steps Rory took, he heard three footsteps in return.

He stopped again, looking behind. Once more, a third footstep followed his two, a quick noise as if someone had been following and had been caught out by Rory suddenly stopping. There was nobody behind him in the tunnel.

When Rory glanced back a fourth time, one moment nothing was there, the next a being emerged from his shadow lunging at him, a huge mass of claws and rows and rows of teeth speeding straight towards him.

The monster was huge. Bulging muscles covered its body. Small milky eyes sat above a mouth cut in a mockery of a smile which contained hundreds of pointed teeth, the saliva that coated them reflecting in Rory’s flames. The thing was an exaggerated mockery of a human body.

On instinct, flames billowed out of Rory, hitting the monster square in the chest, lifting it off its feet to collapse heavily to the cold stone of the tunnel.

The monster had already regained its feet by the time Rory had his next spell ready. The monsters skin had blistered up from the attack however it was so enraged it thundered towards him, Rory was able to launch a lance of fire straight at the monster which didn’t even try to dodge its momentum too extreme it was not even slowed by the flames. Just as the monster was about to collide with Rory, he and everyone else in the group that had them lowered their spears, resulting in the monster impaling itself on five sharp stakes. Everyone was sent flying with the impact.

When Rory regained his feet, the monster lay breathing weakly on the ground, taking wet gurgling breaths, each one more laboured than the rest. It was obviously dying and Rory analysed it quickly before it did.

Shadowspawn – Level 12

Description: invisible unless under the full light of the sun. Shadowspawn are not fully in the realm of the living and is harmless unless called forth. Acknowledging their presence four times is enough to weaken the barrier separating them from our world. Each Shadowspawn has their own way of accomplishing this goal.

Ding – your Dungeon Party has defeated [Shadowspawn] experience earned reduced due to being in a group.