Drew forced the jaws off his arm with the less damaged hand and sighed in relief at the lack of pressure.

“Not your best play, master.” Sapphire walked over and inspected the wound.

“Well it’s not like you gave me an alternative.” Drew took off his damaged armor with the utmost care.

The leather peeled away from the skin and blood steadily dripped out of various holes that were now exposed across his body.

The elephant attached her proboscis and began the healing process on her master.

Splashing noises to his left startled him from his slumped over posture. The possible shambler to his side turned out to be a cyclops that attempted to get the guts he had just bathed in out of his fur.

The healing process took a few hours before he was in fighting shape. His arm was sore from the prolonged gnawing but otherwise he was completely healthy.

The trio stood up to head to the exit when Sapphire spoke up.

“Master, the corpse is still there and you were not awarded any experience.”

They looked back at the body and approached it with due caution. The hollowed out back and caved in skull showed itself in its full glory to all the bystanders.

Drew hacked its head clean off with a strike from his retired ax and yet the experience never came.

Nurgle kicked the body with a stubby leg causing an immediate reaction. They all backed up slightly as it’s arms twitched. Despite the slight movement, it seemed powerless to do anything else. Nurgle approached once again and chopped off its remaining appendages yet no message popped up.

If the creature was still alive, it meant one thing. It was digging time. The body was torn to pieces by the time they found the source. In hindsight, there was really only one place to search.

The neck. It was the only thing left intact that seemed to hold up well enough to the onslaught.

Drew reached in once he saw a glimmering black stone lodged where the torso and chest met. He pulled it free from the body and small tubes were pulled from the surrounding flesh still attached to the orb.

It almost pulse in his hand despite the inorganic feel to the surface. He brought the stone down on the ground multiple times until it finally shattered into many pieces.

+650 xp for defeating Flesh Golem [Summon small monster] has inherited the xp in your place. 2975/6400 xp

The tenacity of the monster made a little more sense now that it was spelt out for him. The rock had been the core that held it together and allowed it to fight back against their onslaught despite the destroyed spine and split skull.

The body and all of its guts slowly disintegrated into dust once the core was destroyed, leaving them stuck in a sealed off room of a dungeon.

The trio approached the other end of the room where the stone had slammed the exit shut. They tried pushing it, striking it, and having Sapphire shoot it all to no avail. It was harder than even the dungeon stone around it.

Drew thought about what other options they had. Would they starve to death in this pit or go mad and start fighting each other?

The train of thought was cut short when Sapphire called them over.

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“Master, does that not look like a button?” She pointed with her trunk to the wall beside the stone.

A large oval shaped stone stood out from the rest in a different color. The stone around it even looked well worn compared to the wall.

“If this works, I’m gonna be so pissed off.” Drew pressed the button and it slid back with relative ease.

Loud grinding stone noises took their attention to the rock blocking their way. They watched it slowly rise up and out of the way, giving them passage to the rest of the dungeon.

“That shit better not have been there the entire time.” Drew walked out of the room with a pissed off look on his face with his companions trailing not far behind.

The winding paths they traveled branched off more and more as they went on. The groups of shamblers increase in size from three or less to eight or less. The fights got hairier and more dangerous as time went on, but the experience continued to pile up.

As they traveled deeper in, traps became an uncommon sight around the floor that the shamblers tended to trigger more than them, leaving the trio to clean up the mess and steal the experience.

The traps turned out to be less deadly the more obvious they were.

The pressure plates that were indecipherable to the normal walkway caused water to splash from the ceiling while the shinny wires that the shamblers walked into sent one of the massive stone hammers flying across the path.

Drew had taken to walking with his old ax like a blind person in hopes of trippering any traps they missed while they thought up other solutions.

They had spent hours traveling through the halls fighting off periodic attacks when the boss door came into sight.

The journey there had been much longer than the first floor and much more dangerous to boot.

All that was left was a puzzle.

Before them sat 3 rotting heads. Once they stepped closer, the heads all began speaking, alternating words in each sentence.

“Congratulations on reaching the boss room. But before you may enter, you must answer our riddles. One per head unless you want to come out dead.”

“This is stupid.” Drew had yet to get over the button and was becoming more and more upset with the dungeon as time went on.

“Master, this is the only way forward, plus I quite enjoy riddles.” The plushy leaded forwards egging them on to begin.

“First, what can not speak but will always answer you?” The first head turned slightly and raised an eyebrow.

“An echo. Ooh, how thematic” The elephant wasted no time in answering. The first head smiled and then exploded into chunks, plastering the room.

“Correct, how smart of you! On to the next. The more of this there is, the less that you can see.” The second head spoke, leaning forward and smiling sinisterly.

“Hmmm. Darkness. It must be.” Sapphire pointed at the head and waited for a response.

The head exploded again and left the last head looking at the trio.

“Congratulations. Mine will not be so easy. I am from one gender and always left behind. I smell foul because I am always rotting by the time I am made. No one eats me but I have already been eaten. I nurture things while I am being made and after I am left behind. What am I?”

Sapphire hesitated to answer. She looked back at her master and looked lost.

Drew wiped his face of the bone and brains that stuck to his skin.

“This is bullshit.” He whispered under his breath. He was tired of the filth that constantly coated him and the wounds he received. Why couldn’t it have been over already?

“Correct! I thought I stumped you there.” The head exploded and the door lit up behind where they once sat.

“Oh wow master, I did not know you were such an intellectual juggernaut. I was thoroughly confused, but I guess you are my master after all.” She walked forward with Nurgle and stood near the door.

Drew’s shoulders slumped and he followed behind them with his ax in one hand and the sword in the other.

They pushed through the door and into the room that awaited them.

The room was much better lit than anywhere else in the dungeon. Across from the trio sat a large reddish wooden desk with a human looking creature sitting behind it.

Emphasis was put on the looking part as the monster whipped its head up to look at them as they entered the room. Half of its face looked like an old man while the other half showed exposed bone and tissue.

It threw the chair out from under him in apparent outrage and grabbed a tall staff that sat beside the desk.

Its flowing robes waved in the non existing wind, showcasing the magical nature of the monster they were about to fight. It growled from deep within its lungs and shouted out from its half destroyed maw.

“Intruders shall die!” Drew stared at the monster in astonishment. It had just spoken near perfect English.

“You can talk?” He watched the monster lift the staff and slam it on the ground, casting some light blue way forward. Before it contacted the trio, the light dissipated and left an area around it in a dim glow.

Magic circles appeared covering the ground. Sickly green hands pulled themselves up and out of the circle.

Drew got flashbacks to the moment he lost Nurgle.

“It's a summoner. Rush it!”