This time, I woke to the smell of cooking meat. Looking around groggily, it seemed that I had fallen asleep while scribing. Luckily, the stone I had dropped after falling asleep wasn't even started.

"Welcome back," I heard from the fire. Looking up, I saw Iva walking over to me with a smoking hunk of meat on a stick in her hands.

Offering me the meat, I looked back at her and asked, "What is it?" I didn't remember us having fresh meat, and the only thing we had killed recently was that other goblin. I really hoped it wasn't goblin meat; I had no desire to eat goblin.

"Try it, it's quite good," she insisted. "It's cave slug. I had set Melk to second watch, and after I went to bed, he found one sneaking up on us as we slept. He said it was a major food source in the dungeon, but you had to be careful at night because their slime is corrosive."

She then informed me that Melk said cave slugs were quite common on this level and they would sneak up on unsuspecting creatures while they slept, dissolve them into a puddle of goo, and then feed. They were basically one giant muscle with eyes and a gland that secreted a corrosive ooze that could dissolve most organic things. They had to be cut up and cooked immediately, or the corrosive stuff in them would start eating away at the meat, making it inedible.

Taking a tentative bite, I was surprised. Iva had been right, and it was quite tasty. Before I knew it, I had devoured the entire thing and was looking for more. Joining them at the small campfire Iva had made, I patiently waited for the next servings to be ready. We sat in silence, enjoying the feast as the fire popped and sizzled as the drippings off the slabs of meat fell into the coals.

Once we were done eating, we packed up our camp and as much of the wood sticks as we could comfortably carry. While I had slept, Iva had fashioned packs for each of us using some of the smaller bits of wood, all tied together with tough leather cords made from the cave slug's hide. Melk had apparently been a hunter for his tribe before Esh had taken over and knew how to take all the useful bits from the slug, leaving only the dangerous parts behind.

The wood pole frames had padding where they hit my shoulders and lower back, and straps that went across the chest and over each shoulder to hold it in place. I was surprised at how comfortable the pack was while walking around. The only downside was that the shoulder straps had to be tied on. Iva explained that it was a quick release; if we were attacked, we could pull the cord and it would untie, dropping the pack to the ground in an instant, making us less encumbered in battle.

The knot was brilliant, but it took quite a while to get ready to go while she tied each of our packs in place. I requested that Iva teach us all the next time we camped so that breaking camp wouldn't take so long. Nodding her assent, we all turned to watch Gwyn work. She had been staring at the wall that led up to the ledge that the goblins had attacked from.

After several moments, and some heavy panting from Gwyn, the stone began to move. Hand and foot holes began to slowly appear. "This was a lot easier when I had my robes and dungeon master status," Gwyn said, panting, a trickle of sweat running down her face.

"That's what you get for dealing with a nobleman!" I said bitterly. "After they've bent you over, they then proceed to take all your shit!"

Gwyn said nothing as we watched Iva climb up the wall using the new handholes. She was probably regretting the day that Duke Gervais had propositioned her. Either that, or she was stewing about having been bested by half-naked, starved prisoners. Feeling I had been a bit harsh, I decided that I would go easier on her if she ever got over her snobby, "I'm better than you because I'm a mage" attitude. Well, that, and her inability to accept that it was no one's fault but hers for agreeing to do that damned nobleman's dirty work for him. Did I mention I really hate nobles?

After peeking over the edge, Iva clambered to the top and, a moment later, signaled us to follow. Once atop the wall we continued down the passage, Melk whispering to Iva as we went, explaining where each of the passages went to and which to avoid if we ended up running away from the Great Esh.

We made good time with Melk leading the way. We were able to avoid several patrols and get to a rocky ledge in another large cavern where the goblins lived. This cavern was nearly identical to the first goblin camp we had encountered. It was almost like the mages who made it were being totally unoriginal and following a pattern for each monster village.

"Maybe this is where they put all the new or unimaginative mage’s," I said to Iva as we hunkered down in the exact same cave we had slept in after wiping out the other camp.

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"It is not!" Gwyn whispered angrily as she walked past us to dump her pack into the cave.

"She's right," Iva admonished me. She then followed up with, "In this cave, the former occupants shit on the other side!"

Laughing, we both looked back over our shoulders to see Gwyn staring daggers at the pair of us.

"Is goblin home," Melk said, moving up to sit beside us. "All same same. Camp above and camp below same same, even big big camp near human village same same."

After asking about how a goblin village could survive near a human settlement, Melk continued to explain. He took one of the smaller sticks we had brought with us and began to draw a circle in a patch of dirt. He drew one large circle and several smaller circles. The large circle was probably four feet in diameter, and the smaller ones were similar in size to an apple. He also drew another circle inside the largest one. This one was probably a foot in diameter, but squashed into one wall.

"Humanz village," Melk said, pointing to the squashed circle against one of the walls of the largest circle. "Shroomy forest," he said, dragging the stick in the area inside the largest circle, not far from the human village. "Goblin home, same, same, same," he said, pointing to a string of three small, apple-sized circles attached to the outside of the largest circle with lines. Pointing to a pair of similar, slightly larger circles on the opposite side of the map, he said, "Orc home, same same."

He ended his explanation by pointing at every single circle saying "same, same, same" over and over again, ending with a final "Same same!" while pointing the stick out into the cavern we were in now. Once finished, the three of us looked expectantly at Gwyn, who eventually sagged in defeat.

"It's where the monsters were going to live!" Gwyn finally blurted out. "We were each given a picture of a cave and told to build something similar in each of our zones for monsters to live. It's not my fault everyone else copied it stone for stone too. I spent all my time on the puzzle rooms I got to make. It was a lot more fun, and no one else had ever made it out of my puzzle box room, let alone found their way through the statue room. That stupid duke threatened to have me expelled since you beat the monsters and got through my puzzle room so easily."

We were right. This whole area before the first village was definitely the newbie dungeon master area. Gwyn eventually explained some of how it worked. Apparently, new wizards who join the dungeon are given an area in the beginning. Whoever can make the deadliest area out of what they are given, or create something original, gets to move deeper where more complex dungeon mastery methods are learned.

Deciding we should prepare for tomorrow, I told the others we would make camp here in the cave tonight. We could spy on the village below in hopes of figuring out what type of creature this Great Esh was. We set up in the back of the cave and, to our surprise, Melk fished in a crevice we hadn't noticed, pulling out a large quilted blanket and draping it over the door.

"Use cave for fun time," Melk explained while making the universal pelvic thrust motion for sex.

Melk received an "eww" from Gwyn and laughter from Iva and myself. He continued explaining that having the blanket over the door would hide our light and also warn anyone from below that the cave was in use. After that, his explanations turned into arguments with Gwyn about how humans are disgusting and do it out in the open, while the more civilized goblins needed privacy to procreate. Gwyn's only argument seemed to be that goblins procreating was disgusting in general, and that he shouldn't do that gesture anymore.

The two of them provided Iva and I with entertainment the entire evening. Melk had begun to do a half pelvic thrust, half shuffling walk thing every time he had to walk past where Gwyn was sitting, sulking. We only had one scare that night, when a goblin couple had come to the curtain and said something in their language. I almost gave us away when Melk slapped Gwyn on the butt while she had been bent over arranging her bedding, causing a squawk of protest. He then said something back to them in their language before grunting a bit. We heard them mumbling as they left, voices fading away. Once it was quiet, Melk's grunting quickly became laughter when he saw the look on Gwyn's face.

Melk informed us he had both good and bad news after his laughing fit subsided. The good news was that they knew Melk was up here with someone and it would be an all-nighter. He said this with a sly grin, waggling his eyebrows at Gwyn. Next, he continued that the tribe would soon know that Melk was alive and probably hiding in the cave here to avoid Esh.

Melk was quickly growing on me and his antics towards Gwyn endeared the little monster to me even more. Gwyn's attitude was getting even worse as she struggled with the fact that she was now a prisoner and slave. She was becoming even more difficult as time went on, glaring at Iva and me just as often as she did Melk. Iva took to the little guy just as quickly as I did, and while I worked on my rune craft, they spent the night telling battle stories over the small fire we had made.

Before lying down for the night, I finished scribing nearly all of the bullets Gwyn had made for me. My thoughts wandered while I scribed, the act having been done so many times now that I had time to worry about tomorrow while not blowing myself up.

I woke a bit later with a start, the last thing I had remembered was scribing and thinking about the potential battle tomorrow. At some point, Iva must have put my tools away and pulled the blankets over us because she was now snuggling into my lap. To my surprise, I felt bare skin. She had apparently taken more than my tools while preparing our bed. Embracing her as my arousal grew, we quietly enjoyed each other's company and eventually fell asleep. It was the best time I'd had since entering this horrible dungeon, and I never wanted it to end.