Solomon worked as fast as he could, but he only managed to get through about half of the pigeons before it became obvious that everybody else was ready to move on. He didn't raise a fuss. The gain from each pigeon was truly meagre. It wasn't worth causing any kind of interpersonal friction just to squeeze out the last few grains of potential powder.

He straightened up and cracked his back. It probably wasn't necessary, considering the system's healing powers, but it still made him feel better. Then he headed over to address the loosely assembled group.

"If this is anything like the last dungeon," he said, "we're in for something bigger up ahead."

He ignored the resulting scattered groans of dismay as he studied the path ahead. The pigeons had been flying over a large park, but there was only one clear way out of it. An extended walkway between a pair of concrete walls. It was broad enough for a car to drive down, but Solomon wouldn't have liked the chances of getting to the end without blowing out a tire if he had tried.

He led the group across the park. As he did, he thought back to the last dungeon. The lions he had faced at the end of the first floor had been formidable opponents. If he had tried to take them on without digging traps beforehand, he would have died. He had to wonder what that challenge would look like when it was scaled up for twenty people.

The more he thought about it, the less he liked it. When they reached the entry to the path, he held up a hand.

"Wait here," he said. "I'm going to take a look ahead."

He trusted himself to be at least a little bit sneaky. Besides, with the vision enhancements he'd gained from the system, he'd be able to spot the next challenge long before anybody else would. He didn't love putting his own neck on the line, but he was even more reluctant to get somebody else killed by asking for a volunteer.

Once he was sure that nobody was going to try to follow him, he set off down the path. Like the rest of this dungeon, it gave off a strong impression of urban decay. The road was cracked and worn, and while the concrete walls around him were strong enough to keep him from leaving the path, they gave the impression that any day they might collapse entirely. The breeze carried a rotten stench that made his nose twitch, though he couldn't quite identify it.

Again, no monsters showed up to ambush him on the pathway. He'd almost call this dungeon considerate, if he could forget about the raccoon clinging to its victim's face. The smell intensified. Solomon wrinkled his nose. He had spent much of the time since the system had arrived covered in some form or another of monster guts. He'd gotten more or less inured to it. This smell, though, had a certain intensity to it that was able to cut right through and demand his attention.

Worse, he noticed tendrils of mist gathering around him. He brought his rifle to bear on the path ahead and activated his telescopic sights. It gave him a close up view of a wall of fog. He shook his head and slung the rifle back over his shoulder. He should have known the system wouldn't go easy on him.

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He moved more slowly, testing his footing before each step. The mist gradually thickened, turning into a fog that cut off his vision from anything more than about five paces away. Stepping carefully and quietly, he strained his ears for any sign of danger.

The first thing he heard other than the sound of his own breathing was a splash. He stopped. That wasn't something he expected to hear in the middle of the city. After a moment, it repeated.

The only way to solve the mystery was to keep going. Solomon crept forward, every sense on high alert. He stopped again when he saw the ground fall away in front of him. The concrete gave way to rubble, sloping downward to an uncertain destination.

Solomon cursed to himself, then crouched down and did his best to move quietly down the slope. He gradually got beneath the level of the fog, at least. He could see a little bit further ahead of him with every step. Just a few more steps, and he thought he might see what was going on. He took a step. Another. Finally he stopped, as the slope he was treading continued on underwater.

This was not the pure water of a lake or a reservoir. Now that his vision wasn't blocked by the fog, Solomon could see a sewage pipe in the distance. Something sludgy was pouring out in fits and starts, causing the noise he had heard as it splashed into the lake. He found it hard to believe that such a decrepit city would have a functioning sewer system, but it wasn't like the system had to play fair.

That did leave the question of what he was supposed to kill. Or what would be attempting to kill him. The filthy lake in front of him stretched off into the distance, and extended out to the sides about as far as he could see. He wasn't desperate enough to start wading through raw sewage to find a dungeon monster.

Instead, he readied the rifle once more. Sighting down the barrel let him activate the magical sights, creating a temporary telescope that he could use to study the situation. He could just about make out the opposite side of the lake, its shore made up of crumbled concrete that led up to an imposing barrier.

He turned his sights to the left and swept the rifle around in a slow half circle. It didn't look like the dungeon would allow access to anything beyond this lake even if he was inclined to take the swim. He figured there had to be something in the lake itself.

It wasn't until the second pass that he noticed a shape among all of the debris floating on the surface. He couldn't tell exactly what it was, but it was big. Solomon kept an eye on it, finger caressing the trigger as a suspicion grew in his mind. In the end patience won out. After several minutes of observation he was rewarded with a distinct swimming sort of wriggle.

He was looking at an alligator. Or a crocodile. He always forgot which was which. Either way, it was a big angry reptile. He couldn't judge precisely from this distance, but it looked big, and everything else in the dungeon had been jumbo-sized. It probably wasn't alone, either. Now that Solomon knew what to look for, a quick sweep of the lake picked out quite a few suspicious floaters.

He carefully stowed his gun away and began the climb back up to the path. He was extra careful not to dislodge any of the rubble as he moved. If he ran back to the park with a horde of those things on his tail, it would be a slaughter. And not the kind he wanted.

Still, while they were a daunting opponent, he didn't think they were unbeatable. It was just a matter of coming up with a plan.