“Species can change with evolution. It’s a known fact. For the gods' sake, even races can change, so please, when some student or new mage comes along stating they discovered a new species, check!” - Note to the staff of the Arilon Kingdom Library from Mage Termon.

Aster

The process of gathering the twenty-six monster cores was mundane, if not dull, using arrows to cool them off. Nothing bothered us or even showed up. The dungeon letting us work in peace. Once we were finished with the cores, we took a break near the entrance, drinking nearly a fourth of the water we had. It probably wasn't the smartest idea as we were only in the first room, but as stated by Kat, we could back out whenever we wanted. Having a vague understanding of the Dungeon now, I would have brought quite a few different items.

We were standing at the only other path out of the room other than the tunnel that had led in. It was almost similar to the entrance, but the stone grew noticeably darker. I checked over my bow, and the arrows strapped to my side. I’d had to pull a spare one out of my storage because the feather had ripped on one of the ones I had used. It was something that was common with arrows that hit their target. I was planning on finding a way to fix it, but that would be a while.

Looking over to Kat, who was in the back of the group, I gave her a smile and a thumbs up. Still, she held a worried look. The repetitive use of mana had given me a light headache, even with it regening to full each time. I hadn’t mentioned it, but she had seemed to notice. With one last check, we started down the pathway. The wider opening stayed consistent as we walked through the tunnel, the difference coming in the stone color. What was a dark grey before was increasingly darkening. No one needed to cast a light spell as the next room came into view after a few moments. The word room was a bit of an overstatement as it was more of a long corridor. It took a second to get a good look as Wren blocked my view, but his words were all I needed to hear.

“How has no one died doing this dungeon yet?” He muttered, looking over the room.

The entire floor was magma, with only a series of pathways of black circular stones spaced a few feet apart in the lava, leading to another path similar to the one behind us. I stood to the side as Fernand started to look over it, speaking some words to cast a few spells, even pulling out a metal stick from his pouch to see how far down the magma went, which was further than the stick could reach. Kat started tossing stones into the lava and onto the platforms. After a moment, Fernand straightened, leaving the half-melted stick in the magma.

“It seems simple. I’d assume it's a puzzle room, but there's no real puzzle, possibly because the dungeon is new or it’s a trap room. New dungeons tend to separate the room types instead of putting them together,” Fernand said thoughtfully, looking at the stones. “Still, I don’t want to take any chances. Some could be weight-triggered or fake. It’s not uncommon for dungeons to implement a lot of traps. Aster, can you shoot a few stones and aim for the ones in the middle to make a path?”

I nodded, moving to get a good angle. It’d be embarrassing to miss a target that didn’t move. The first arrow clacked off the stone, doing nothing. The second did the same, bouncing into the magma after hitting the stone. The third embed itself into the stone for a second before the entire stone crumbled into the lava. I was ecstatic at first that Fernand had figured out the trap until he turned to me, and I realized I was about to lose more than three arrows.

After marking out a safe path and testing it, then changing it twice and losing more arrows than I wanted to, we were able to move across the room slowly. The stones were smooth and small, making any grip hard, and with them only big enough to have one person on them at a time, we had to move in a line.

The last person to go was Elyssa, who made the crossing look effortless, like a walk in the city. She hadn't offered advice or any ideas regarding the room. I had practically forgotten about her, which made it clear she was only there to stop us from getting severely hurt. The trip across for me was fine, the same with Fernand and Kat, but Wren had it hard with how heavy his armor must have been, almost slipping once in the middle and only catching himself with his shield on the stone in front of him. Once across, he took a moment, leaning on his knees. “Fuck it! I’m buying a dozen fire immunity charms before I come back to this place.”

There was a round of chuckles at his words, but a rumble filling the room stopped them short. I turned to see the lava in the room we were just at bubble, pop, and then start to rise. That got us moving; it wasn’t fast, but we were only feet away. Back peddling, we started through the tunnel, which was angled upwards, thankfully. We started with a quick jog but had to change into a sprint as the magma started to speed up. Wren set the pace with him in the lead, and with Kat in the back just in front of Elyssa, I was cramped in the middle with Fernand. I wasn’t necessarily scared of small spaces, but the thought of getting stuck behind someone in a tunnel if it got too small sent a spike of fear up my spine, and I kept casting my head back, watching the magma.

The tunnel seemed to snake and bend, even seemingly going back on itself; at some point, the dark stone had changed into a glossy color as fast as we moved, though the magma seemed to keep pace. We burst out of the tunnel, the slope evening out into a room that, for once, didn’t have magma. Instead, it looked like the inside of a building. Turning, I watched the ominous glow of the magma consume for a moment more before it started to recede. I took several deep breaths and slipped my pack off, pulling two water skins out. The room was still hot and heavy. I was keeping an eye out at the same time. The magma stopping didn't mean we were safe. It was a daily small room made out of a mix of brick and shiny black stone. There was no furniture or windows in the room. The only thing that stood out was a heavy wood door because wood didn’t seem like something that would be used.

Running my hand over the wall as I passed Kat one of the skins, I marveled at how smooth it was but stopped as my thumb was sliced on the part of the jagged parts of the wall. Looking at my thumb and the blood welling out of the cut, I was surprised. My endurance was triple what it used to be only a few months ago, and at the time, stone had had trouble breaking my skin.

“Careful, the walls are obsidian. Any points or breaks are sharp.” Kat said

I nodded, wiping the blood off onto some of the leather portions of my armor, then applying pressure before I looked to see what the others were doing and to make sure no one else had noticed. It seemed Wren had finally caught his breath, holding an empty water skin, and had sat down. Fernand was checking in his pack for something, so taking a sip of my water, I sat down as well.

The dungeon seemed to have given us a break, something I wasn't going to pass up. It had to have only been two or three hours since we entered, but I felt worn down. A big portion had to be from the heat. We were all sweating enough to fill a barrel.

“I think the reason why it took everyone so long was the number of breaks they had to take. The constitution you would need for the heat not to affect you has to be in the five hundreds or maybe even thousands.” Kat agreed when I mentioned it to her. “If running this dungeon becomes a normal thing for the course, then it would be a good idea to get equipment specifically for it.”

I agreed, trying to think of items that would help in this dungeon. The thought brought a question to my mind. “Do you know how many dungeons are near the capital? There are other’s right?”

Ferdinand was the one to respond after Kat gave a shrug.

“If you include this dungeon, then there are three. They're not necessarily close, but the dungeons are close enough for teleportation to be affordable. One of the tasks of the adventuring course last year was to reach the end of the second floor on one of the dungeons with only your party. That means without any backup.” He raised a hand, gesturing to Elyssa, who nodded at him but didn't speak.

I tilted my head idly, running my hand through the ear to get out some of the knots in the fur. “Wouldn’t that be dangerous? I mean, the second floor has grade-two monsters and a grade-three boss?” I asked

“That’s why this course has so many dropouts. Last year, two students died, and four were maimed; it took a lot of money and healing to restore the limbs. It’s not as bad as some of the courses, but it still is one of the most dangerous,” Wren said. He had put his back to one of the walls and was checking over his shield.

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I nodded thoughtfully. The next hour was spent resting; we were all full of mana and stamina, but our bodies were exhausted. We could have kept going until our stamina was gone, but there wasn't a point. I spent the time looking over part of my status sheet. Not much had changed with only one fight, but I had free points to assign. Thinking for a moment, I brought up just my attributes portion of the sheet.

[Attributes]

[Available Attribute Points - 6]

[Constitution - 54]

[Strength - 86]

[Endurance - 121]

[Dexterity -165]

[Charisma - 78]

[Intelligence - 55]

[Wisdom - 84]

Scanning over it, I hummed. Six points didn’t seem like a lot when looking at this. Still, from the reading and the teaching so far, I knew free points added up over the levels, so assigning them properly was a good idea. As of right now, I had two lacking attributes that were going to lag behind until I classed up again: Intelligence and Constitution. Neither of them applied to my build, but a lecture from my FM teacher, Mage Eldrim, had taught me that letting one attribute fall behind too far could influence the others. The example he had given was one that actually applied to me. If Intelligence fell behind too far, it could affect my reaction time. While my body could react fast enough, my brain couldn't process the information fast enough. My instinct would still be there, but sometimes that wasn't enough. The same applied to the Constitution. While my strength and other physical stats were high, if my body could handle the increase in my muscle or my body flexibly, then it would end badly, to put it simply. I cringed slightly at some of the examples Made Eldrim had given on what could happen, pushing them out of my head. It only applied if there was a major imbalance in attributes, so I wasn’t anywhere near it.

After only thinking for a moment, I put three points into both of the lowest stats. Fixing up my faults at the cost of a slightly better attribute was worth it, in my opinion. With that done, I relaxed my head against the wall. There was no way I was getting any sleep, but I could rest. Placing my tail in my lap so I didn’t squish it, I wished for a moment I could talk to Umbra. She would have a lot of thoughts on the dungeon, but she would probably mainly complain about the heat. Her scales would be so nice to lay next to at the moment.

Once an hour or so had passed, we all got ready to go, with Wren retaking the lead. He had been, well, more open was the wrong word, but he hadn't said anything close to rude, so my opinion of him had risen a few notches. Kat had also wanted to see what was ahead to get an idea of where we would be going, but Fernand had pointed out that opening the door could trigger a trap, so she had waited. With a nod from all of us, Wren stepped forward. There wasn’t a handle to open it, so he used his shield to push the door open. With no noises from the hinges or the door scraping on the ground, it reminded me that we were in a dungeon where everything was built the way it wanted for its purpose.

With slow steps, we moved into the next room, moving out the door. The room we entered wasn’t a cave but a building or, more specifically, a long, massive hallway, not filled with magma this time. Two rows of pillars made out of finely crafted obsidian stood on either side, glowing just enough to light the area around them. Even with my vision, I found seeing after a hundred feet hard. The pillars connected to the ceiling, probably holding it up, towered. I could just barely make out the ceiling itself, which was arched in the middle moss that glowed a dark red over it, giving it an eerie look. The room had to be a few hundred feet long and half as wide. It gave us room to spread out, which we did a little but not overly much. We made our way across the room. I kept my head up, trusting the others to keep an eye out around us. After the first room, I didn’t want a surprise from above. Nothing happened as we crossed. There were no monsters, traps, or anything. It only served to make me more nervous and anxious, something that I wasn’t appreciating. I was almost hoping to spot a monster as we neared the end, but nothing happened.

“What’s that?” Wren asked, and I looked down to see him gesturing to the end of the room. On the wall, two things had just come into view. One was writing; the letters were large enough to look like they were made by a giant, and the other equally as big was a dial made of four sections. As we got closer, I could make out shapes on the dial. I relayed what I saw after noticing all of them were squinting. Once close enough, I read the words and repeated them aloud with a bit of confusion as I tried to figure out what it meant.

Coiled, I remain. A hiss is all they hear. To approach unclear is severe. What am I?

“It’s a riddle!” Kat said, a bit excited. “My father loved to tell me riddles, but it’s not one I’ve heard before.”

I tilted my head thinking about it, but I was at a loss as well. Once we got to the wall, I looked at the dial with Fernand as Wren and Kat discussed the riddle. It was set into two sections, each with a button set in the stone next to it. The top one was currently glowing. After getting ready for a trap, Wren spun the dial, which took no small amount of effort, judging by his grunt. As the dial turned, four symbols were revealed with a full rotation. A lizard, bird, snake, and what I thought was a cat. Trying to spin the other dial did nothing, as it had no symbols on it.

“Well, I guess those are the possible answers, and you choose by pushing the button. It seems simple,” Kat said.

“Why have this in a room this big, though, and what happens if we get it wrong?” Wren asked, looking around. I nodded, agreeing with him.

“Let’s hope we don’t have to find out,” Ferrand said. “Thoughts on the riddle?”

“Snake.” Kat and I said at the same time.

We both grinned at each other. “The riddle is simple when given possible answers: a bid makes no sense, no bird I’ve met hisses; a lizard or salamander, whatever it is, makes a little sense but doesn't coil up. A cat will. It doesn’t fit the dungeon, and the last part of the riddle makes more sense to snakes because a lot of them develop poison as they level.” Kat explained her reasoning

I nodded. “Cats hunt, and usually, they are the ones to approach you in the hunt, but that’s in my forest. The ones in the city are too small to do anything, really.”

After a minute more of discussion, we were all in agreement, and Wren spun the dial. With one glance, I pushed the button. There was a loud click. Then, the glowing changed to blue.

“Blues good, right?” Wren asked, taking a step back.

We all waited, then a shifting noise echoed in the room, and the words above the dial changed, stone dust falling as from seamless lines the stone flipped, revealing a new set of words. I sighed in relief and read the next set of words.

A shell impervious to spells, one limb for each eye, I wait for my prey where I lay. What am I?

I thought about it but didn’t speak aloud as I didn’t have a good idea. Watching as Wren spun the dial, I looked at all the symbols. An ant, a creature with six legs, a spider, and something I’d never seen before.

“An ant, A valomander, a spider, and a crab,” Fernand said after inspecting each for a moment.

“What’s a crab or valomander?” I asked. My words earned a snort from Wren, but I listened as Kat explained them.

“A valomander is a six-legged mix between a horse and some insect found in the desert, they have a hard shell, but I don’t know much about them. A crab is a creature with claws and a lot of legs that live in the water on the sea.”

I thought about them and then shrugged. “A spider sounds right, but maybe a valomander? I don't know what they like.”

“Well, we can rule out a crab and ant. They both have shells, but neither have eyes that equal their limbs. I think a valomander might be right, but I haven’t read up on them, they do have six eyes, but their hunting methods, I don’t know. A spider isn’t impervious to magic, but the shell can deflect spells depending on the type of spider.”

Kat shrugged, shaking her head. “This isn’t really a riddle, well it is, but It feels more like a knowledge test.”

There was a moment of silence as we all looked at each other and the words, but no one could come up with anything else.

“Shit, we're going to have to guess, aren’t we?” Wren asked

After another moment of silence, Fernand nodded to himself. “Spider. A Valomander doesn’t make sense since they are desert creatures. Spiders dosn't either, but at least they're underground?”

As Wren spun the dial, I frowned. I only knew a little about spiders, but they didn’t fit in a draconic dungeon. They had no history with dragons, but did valomanders? I watched and reluctantly nodded as Wren looked at us, and then he pushed the button. There wasn’t a click, but there was a scratching, chittering noise from behind. Turning around, I stepped back. Two shapes were dropping from the ceiling. Their multiple eyes seemed to glow in the dark with hunger and eagerness. “I think we got it wrong,” I said, raising my bow and Identifying them as they moved closer, feeling my stomach drop as I saw how tall they were.

[Under-cavern Ash Widow Spinner - Level 67]

I really wished we had picked the valomanders.