Timor was in favor of luring adventurers into traps and killing them, I personally figured we just do it the old fashioned way and simply ambush them, but to each their own I guess. Regardless, we first needed to secure an adventurer to use as bait, I thought we should just use him, but he said that nobody would recognize him so it wouldn’t be as good of a trap.

Which is why we were now observing the town from a distance, looking for any potential victims. I wanted to find a group with a Barbarian in it so I could take his gear, Timor argued that getting a spellcaster was more important since Barbarian barely even scaled with gear anyways.

He had a point, but I didn’t like it.

“What about those guys?” he whispered and pointed at a trio, a ranger, a fighter, and what I imagined was a cleric of some sort, hard to say which healing class in particular.

“I despise Rangers with a passion, and as much as I want to cut of their head I also don’t want to a walking porcupine.” I denied.

“Comeon, I can handle the Ranger.”

“So I just singlehandedly fight a cleric and fighter at the same time? I’m a barbarian, I wouldn’t last a second.”

“Alright then we just jump the Cleric first. Easy”

“And then the Ranger has free reign on us.”

“You know what, I’m just going to blow them up with some hellfire and you do your thing, what about that?” he exclaimed.

We were so going to die.

We followed along at a healthy distance, very careful to avoid the Ranger’s field of view. They took a turn off the main road after a few hours of walking, it was still a very well traveled road, but clearly not one the traders frequented.

We decided to follow and see where they were going. They were likely on a quest knowing Adventurers, maybe their was something worthwhile. So we continued our stalking, but half of my effort was focused on guiding Timor through the forest, how he even managed to get snagged on so many branches is beyond me.

After a couple of hours the trio stopped, before them was a small cave entrance, it looked pretty plain to me but the adventurers seemed all nervous about it. At this point the Predator’s Amulet had progressed it’s changes further, I lost most of my color vision, but I could now see an order of

magnitude better than I could have imagined possible, I have also been noticing faint trails of color here and there, particularly around Timor, and around their Cleric too apparently.

Timor’s had a blackish red hue to them, whereas the Cleric’s had a greenish white coloring. I didn’t know the next thing about magic being a Barbarian, but I suspected it had something to do with their magics.

My hearing had also improved even further and I could make out bits and pieces of their conversation even as we sat hidden behind a bush over 200 feet away.

“**** level 12, the ***** says 15 or ****” said the ranger apprehensively.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“*** ** fine Mac, we have a *****.” assured the fighter.

The cleric just shrugged.

They were clearly trying to fight something, or someone…

Timor just sighed. “This is obviously a dungeon you Barbarian.”

“You said that like being a Barbarian is a bad thing, it is the most glorious class of them all.” I shot back immediately.

Timor clearly did not agree, in time, in time he will see the truth. But, what he said makes sense, I just pictured a Dungeon being a little bit more…. grand, perhaps more spectacular?

But no, it was just a hole in the side of a hill that sloped down.

“Do we follow them in?” I asked my partner in crime.

“We could, but our element of surprise would probably be blown. However, if we wait long enough they Cleric will have used up most of his heals and we can pick off the Fighter easily.” he replied

I liked that sound of this.

“Let’s roll with that.” I agreed.

We waited for a few minutes then followed in after them. I had no clue how expansive dungeons were, would they be down there all day? For a few hours, maybe it was a whole week long excursion, no, they didn’t bring enough supplies for that. Ah, but there are storage rings so it is still a possibility.

You have entered a Dungeon (Black Goblin Caves)

To nobodies surprise, it was a dungeon filled with various types of Goblins, all of them with leathery dark black skin. It was designated as a Dungeon, but it looked like a whole community to me, you could see where they lived, where they ate, and the wooden walkways they used to transverse the large cave system in the open areas.

Thanks to my boots I was able to walk without any concerns, but Timor was managing to make more noise than a whole horde of Goblins so I grabbed him and slung him over my shoulder. There, quiet.

I heard a noise up a head, it sounded like the dying wail of a child, not that I know what that sounds like but that’s how I imagined it would sound. It was coming from inside a small cave to our left and up a rather steep wooden walkway. Below us was a few other walkways barely illuminated by torches, and below that was just darkness even to my eyes. Falling meant almost certain death here.

But the only one going to be falling here is that damn ranger when I push him off.

I drop Timor on the ground and tell him to cause some noise, meanwhile I hide in the darkness behind their little cave entrance waiting to jump on them when they come through.

“Adventurers! Prepare to meet your doom!” shouted Timor

I inwardly cringed at that, he would make a good generic demon lord. Regardless, I readied myself as I heard their footsteps come closer. I waited until the fighter and cleric walked past for a clear shot at the ranger.

As he came into view, I jumped on top of him in a single great leap, intent on cleaving his head off in one fell blow. With no apparent momentum, he instantly propelled himself backwards and well out of reach, and shooting me square in the chest as he did so.

Timor started raining down hellfire on all of us, but I payed no attention, intent on killing the ranger. I sprinted after him, and just when I got in ranger he was propelled backwards again, and this time landing an arrow in my shoulder.

I let out deafening roar and didn’t let the arrows stop me, when I got close he gave up on shooting and simply ran away, faster than even I could run. I was beyond frustrated, all of my mental calmness went out the door and I felt nothing but rage.

He quickly found himself trapped in a dead end, and I swung my axe for center mass with glee. He raised in arm to protect himself. His arm was sent spinning into the wall and landed with a wet thud, but it granted him just enough opportunity to jump around me and sprint off for the entrance.

I had no chance of catching him and he jumped off the walkway and onto another one twenty feet below and sprinted on without pause. I was just about to jump down after him when Timor let out a yell.

The fighter was upon him and had taken off a chunk of his arm with his arming sword.

“Fuck.” I cursed and turned to help him, in to no time I was upon the cleric, he sensed my presence at the last second and ducked my swing, but I brought my axe around for a sideways sweep right into his chest.

The axe buried deep but the force of the blow launched him back and off my axe blade with. The fighter turned and struck me in the face with his sword, sending me stumbling back, he charged after and I used my axe like a quarterstaff to direct his momentum off to my side.

He tried to get up, but I brought my axe down on his armored back, not breaking through but still driving him back down onto the walkway.

“Shield Bash!” he cried and in an instant he was on his feet and his shield was planted into my face with shocking force, sending me flying a dozen feet back to the entrance of the small cave we had found them in.

He stomped after me and quickly plunged his sword into my torso, pinning me to the ground. I could see his grin of triumph.

And then a giant blast of flames impacted him in the back at point blank, and he stumbled forwards with a scream and choking on the blood that caught in his throat. Magic had a tendency of getting past armor.

I ripped the sword out of my stomach and tossed it into the abyss below, I grabbed the wounded fighter with both hands spun him around to face me.

We locked eyes as I raised my foot and threw it into his chest with all my strength, launching him into the abyss after his sword.

“This is sparta” Timor murmured.

“What?” I turned to face him.

“Nothing, nothing at all.” he smiled.

Ugh, that did not feel good. I shook it out and gathered my axe, before half walking have stumbling over the cleric. That shield bash did a number on me.

Surprisingly he was still alive, if grievously wounded. He would likely bleed out, and he would have used a healing spell by now if he had any.

“Please, don’t do this, I have a family.” he begged weakly.

“Of course you do, we all had to come from somewhere.”

I brought my axe down on his neck, ending his suffering.

+ (1) Levels.

Damn, I was hoping for two.