Ryu’s eyes scanned over the gathering people with distaste. It had been weeks since he had left the expedition, and he could no longer stay away. The time to enter the dungeon had come. Masking his reservations, he dropped from the tree and slipped into the midst of the gathering adventures.

“Alright, enter your groups!” Lucius called to the group, standing on a hastily erected platform. “In a few moments, you’ll receive an invite to a party from Reeves here. Reeves has a leader Class, and his party Skill will allow the dungeon to recognize our group as a single force. We’ll still be split up into groups of five, but this will allow us to coordinate our forces before the boss fight. We move out in ten.”

Ryu’s eyes narrowed at the man’s speech before he schooled his expression once more. Around him, the expedition was splitting up into groups of five. He had almost forgotten that the dungeon would split the expedition into more manageable groups of five, and he was left wondering what Lucius’s plans were.

Before he could wonder too much, an arm seized his. Bonny gave him a harsh look.

“Finally decided to return, have you?” she asked.

“I’m sorry, it’s-”

“No, I understand that this is just the way of things. I can’t say I like it though.”

He nodded, grateful to avoid a tense conversation. She led him through the gathering groups and to three people waiting with bored expressions.

“Ryu, glad to see you again,” Horace said from his enchanted chair. The other two members were unfamiliar to him. “This is Cyrus and Mercy, the two other members of our group. I’m sorry I didn’t get to introduce you sooner.”

Cyrus was a barrel-chested man with olive skin and dark hair. Ryu gave him a brief nod of respect, noting the shield strapped across his back and curved sword at his hip. Gazing at Mercy, he found he did recall her. The Mistress of Silks he’d heard her called, and though she wore no visible weapons, it was true that the silks wrapped around her dark skin gave off a dangerous air. He met her eyes. Neither seemed dangerous, but with Lucius’s betrayal, he could no longer trust his instinct. He imagined his growing list of problems would only lessen when it was his turn to be put in the mud. More’s the pity, he supposed.

Party Invitation

War Chief Reeves has offered you a request to join his party. Do you accept? Y/N

With a twinge of reluctance, Ryu mentally selected yes. He was committed now. For better or worse, he would see the end of this expedition. He could only hope it was in victory, but the other alternative seemed as good an end as any.

With everything in order, all that was left was to make his final preparations. His pale bow was strung. His equipment was already donned. He fidgeted with his hatchets as he waited, making sure they slipped out of the loops on his belt with ease. The minutes seemed to drag on, the groups around him passing the time with small talk. Ryu was silent. Talking would only increase his nerves. Just as his frustration began to rise for the groups around him, the five people closest to the front entered the pit the dungeon was located in.

One after another, groups entered the pit, sliding down into the abyssal darkness. Lucius’s group waited around the edge. They were ‘supervising’ the transition of the various groups. Ryu suspected this was not the case, but what could he do? Judging by the frown on his face, Horace seemed to share Ryu’s worries, and as it was their group’s turn to enter, the mud under Lucius’s feet slid out from under him, throwing him down into the pit. The waiting groups, including the remains of Lucius’s, looked on in horror as their leader plummeted into the depths with a shout. Ryu only smiled. Horace’s class was Psychic, which implied he could impose a bit of telekinetic force when needed. Such as to a bank of mud. Sliding down into the dark bowels of the pit, he kept his thoughts to himself. Sometimes being around people wasn’t all bad.

His slide down the stinking depths of the dungeon slowed as he shifted through space. Dungeon’s were only marginally connected to the plane the Rings were on, and his slide marked the transition from the Rings to the dungeon’s own plane.

Warning!

You are now entering Scaled Giants’ Burrow. Fight well and gain rewards. Dividing areas and distributing party in 3, 2, 1...

A light shock ran through his body, raising the hair on his neck. The dark mud of the pit was replaced by uneven stone and the earthy smell of dirt. His [Terrain Adaptation] activated, changing his scent, presence, and aura to blend in with his new surroundings. His vision went dark before adapting to the low light conditions. His slide ended, and he dropped down into a stone cave.

He looked around him, brow furrowing as his eyes took in the situation. As expected, he was in the dungeon with four people. Except they weren’t his group. His heart dropped further when he recognized the mop of blonde hair to his left. His face looked as if it was made of stone, stoic as it was.

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In moments, the confused people regained their bearings, and one brought out a small enchanted lantern, hanging it from his belt. Ryu’s eyes adjusted to the new light as he watched the expressions of the stranded Climbers. Confusion played across their features before being replaced by grim acceptance. These were hard men and women. A little mix-up wasn’t going to stop them too much. Save for Lucius. In the time it had taken for the lantern to activate, the blonde man’s expression had shifted from stoicism to panic. It was an act, Ryu suspected, but then, it seemed that was all Lucius had done until this point.

The others were a mixed bag. A man in a dark leather duster fiddled with the wands at his hips stood closest to Ryu, lantern hanging on his belt. To his left, a woman in steel plate armor was already replacing her longsword with a short sword and shield to better adjust to the tight cavern. Swallowing past the lump in his throat, he looked to the last member of the group, a woman clad in shifting silks. Mercy. The strands of silk writhed like serpents as her hazel eyes met Ryu’s own. She quirked her eyebrows, nodding at Lucius with a knowing smirk.

The blonde man in question was equipping armor of his own, something that shouldn’t have been missing in the first place. It was clear to Ryu he had never intended on entering to begin with. The armor was a high quality mix of leather and scale. Over it all went a variety of daggers and knives, including a pair of stilettos. His experienced eye limited the choices for Lucius’s Class in his mind.

“Going to scout ahead,” Ryu grunted. The rest could figure things out amongst themselves. He was in no hurry to associate with Lucius, knowing the time for such a confrontation would come. He headed into the narrow tunnel connected to their cave.

He checked for traps, examined tracks, and made observations, senses honed in on detecting the slightest changes in the environment. When the faint breeze in the tunnel was disturbed and the stink of unwashed bodies hit his nose, he knew something was amiss.

As his ears picked up the scuff of feet on the cave floor, he trekked back to the group with haste. Reaching the entrance way to the cavern the group was in, he fiddled with his storage ring before letting out a small curse. Ryu’s storage held dozens of deployable traps, yet very little of them would be suited to this environment. Explosives were too risky in a cave. There was no place to hide a spike trap. His caltrops would work, but the group would have to walk through them at some point. As he thought, the rest of the group walked up to his side.

“There’s targets ahead, a small group from the sound of them. No clear idea on species,” he said, cool tone in opposition to his inner feelings.

Mercy tapped a finger on her chin in thought. “We’ll fight them here. The tunnel is a natural chokepoint. Wesson, you’re ranged support. Lucius to the right…” The woman continued to give directions in a controlled voice, but Ryu tuned her out, focusing his senses on the approaching enemies. He counted the breaths, noted the frequency of their strides, and smelled the tang of metal. With the mental benefits of cultivation, his calculations happened in moments, putting the sensory information together like a puzzle.

“Twenty enemies. Each no taller than my chest. Steel… No some sort of iron alloy armor. Good condition,” he said, his voice clinical. Mercy paused. It seemed he had interrupted her, but she took it in stride, adapting the group’s plan to fit the new information. He paid little attention to her plan beyond his place in it, instead thinking of the incoming opponents. Their smaller stature would give them an advantage in the tight tunnels, and it was worth noting that they seemed to be carrying metal, which implied a human way of fighting.

Wesson, the man in the duster, drew his wands, twirling them between his fingers. The woman in the metal plate, Anri, stood at the front of the group, and Lucius was beside her, face expressionless as he tapped the hilt of a knife. His nervous movements had disappeared, confusing Ryu even more. Was this the real Lucius? Was his nervousness an act, or was it the other way around? Ryu shook his head. He couldn’t let this guy keep distracting him. He drew his own weapons, the simple hatchets giving off a menace of their own. Mercy stood at the back. With her silks, she was ready to assist in whatever way was needed.

With the group ready, time seemed to slow. It was always this way before a fight. The wait was the worst part, gnawing at the nerves of the waiting fighters. After a dozen long, tense minutes, a scaled snout peeked into the tunnel that connected to the cave. Ryu’s arm moved in a blur.

His hatchet took the monster in the head with a spray of blood. He triggered the weapon’s enchantment, the hatchet flying back into his hand with a meaty smack. A few moments passed in silence before the monsters surged forward, the small lizardmen scuttling up the walls of the tunnel. Ryu recognized these creatures. They were kobolds, although these were much faster and larger than the simple monsters he was acquainted with. They closed the distance with the group in moments, their odd and erratic movements throwing them all off.

Anri was the first to die, a stumble causing her to lose her footing. The kobolds swarmed her body. She was left a limp corpse. Moments after, Wesson missed with his wand and received a knife to the eye in return. Ryu did his best to save them, failing both times. He should’ve known; battle was a cruel mistress at the best of times.

The problem was the unorthodox movement of the creatures. One moment they seemed sluggish, but then they exploded into a frenzy of quick attacks. It gave even him pause. Still, Ryu was nothing if not experienced. His hatchets met the monsters’ attacks, chopping them down in short, violent movements. Each chop was perfect, the right mix of economy of movement and brutality. It was like a meditative state, and before he knew it, three reptilian corpses lay on the ground.

To his right, Lucius moved in an odd dance of his own, knives and daggers slipping out of sheaths in precise movements. Behind him, Mercy was silent. He blocked an incoming stab with his hatchet, turning his head to look behind him. The Mistress of Silks was dead. She was on the ground, vacant eyes peering into the void of eternity. He turned his attention back to the battle without hesitation. She could help him no longer.

Between Lucius and Ryu, the rest of the kobolds were killed. When the last monster fell, the two men looked up at each other, their eyes meeting. In many ways, these two were opposites. Ryu’s hair was dark, while Lucius’s was blonde. Ryu’s features were sharp. Lucius’s were handsome. Maybe most importantly, Ryu was a loner, enjoying self-imposed exile, where Lucius thrived on manipulating his social connections. Yet for all their differences, each man’s look sent a similar message. Their glares were promises, the death of the other playing out in their respective imaginations. Still, neither made a move. They couldn’t. To face the dungeon alone was to guarantee death. Lucius seemed to accept this truth first, sheathing his daggers in a smooth movement. Ryu kept his hatchets out. They may have an unspoken truce, but he didn’t trust the man in the slightest.

“Are you going to help?” Lucius called, rummaging through Anri’s fallen form.

“No.”

“Then I’m keeping their storage rings.”

Ryu only grunted in response. He was examining one of the kobold’s corpses, using a knife to inspect its anatomy. It was macabre, but it was necessary. Unless a monster was intelligent, their Skills were usually functions of their anatomy. The wyverns of the Third Ring, for example, had a special gland that secreted a highly flammable liquid, allowing them to breathe fire. Although the kobolds hadn’t shown any special abilities, he still felt the urge to examine them. It was almost instinct, a drive fueled by years of slaying monsters with efficiency. In this case, his habit was rewarded.

He found a growth the size of a small stone located along the monster’s brain stem. The system labelled it as a Communication Node. He discarded the corpse, pulling another one in its place. The same growth was found on it, too. A hunch developed in his mind. If he was right, these growths allowed the kobolds to communicate nonverbally in battle, which explained their simultaneous rushes and coordinated attacks. Although simple, such communication gave them a dangerous advantage over humans when combined with their superior numbers and speed.

“Are you still going to keep up the little performance now?” Ryu asked, breaking the silence in the stinking cavern.

“I suppose not. Seems my audience has up and disappeared,” Lucius said. His voice gained an elegant accent, and his proper smile was replaced with a roguish grin. Even his eyes changed, gaining an odd flatness as if his expression didn’t reach quite that high. Some believed that eyes were the windows to the soul, and in that moment, Ryu was inclined to agree. The distant look in Lucius’s eye said all he needed to know. They gathered what they could from their fallen comrades before leaving the blood-stained cavern.