"These little ones keep coming in waves, but they aren't what's worrying me, and we're handling them. We need a better idea of what else is coming." Throttlecog emphasized his point with a double-handed blow of his spanner to the side of a Stone Lurker's head. Spanner beat stone, and the creature crumpled, leaving the cavern quiet except for the heavy panting of exhausted miners and the groans of those suffering injuries.

Milo and Belinda had been healing the injured after each wave. Many of the injured miners were weak and battered but could still assist in the fights. But both of them were running low on mana. Belinda had noticed two things: Milo regenerated his mana far faster than she did, and he ate a lot of cheese. They were catching what rest they could between waves of fighting and healing. Both were getting used to Harry's potions, but Milo was almost out of them. He passed the last two to Belinda.

The miners were quickly learning how to take down the small lurkers by working in fast-moving teams and taking advantage of any weak spot created by the three Engineers. But there seemed to be endless waves of them.

Two-Screws slowed the spin of his augers, and they reshaped into mechanical hands. He walked to the nearby barrel of ale and brought back two large flagons, handing one to Throttlecog. No one had objected when several dwarves from the guildhall had hauled down the barrels and made a makeshift bar. Dwarves healed faster and fought harder with good ale to drink. Milo theorized it must act like a low-grade cheddar on their systems. He kept trying the stuff at Two-Screws urging, but it still tasted weak and bitter to him. He'd stick with cheese.

"What we really could use," Two-Screws exclaimed loudly. "Is a fast and agile scout. Someone who doesn't mind taking suicidal jobs and going into danger. Someone who could go find the Brood Mother and report back."

Milo sighed. He'd been thinking the same thing himself and expecting that he'd be running off to scout sooner or later. What he hadn't expected was someone else would volunteer.

Vary rushed up to Two-Screws and saluted. "I volunteer sir! I'm fast and know the caverns. I'll go find it."

Two-Screws paused and looked over to Throttlecog who just gave him a thumbs up. Two-Screws finally said, "Lad, no one is questioning your speed but..."

"But it's a job for more than one person. I'll head out with Vary." Milo stepped up and put his hand on the young dwarf’s shoulder.

Burnock was listening to the conversation from off to the side. He'd taken part in some of the fighting but had a tendency to not engage until the monsters were injured and slowed. He wasn't taking any chances on being laid up with broken bones, or outright killed. Now, he saw an opportunity and turned to Shifty. In a low voice, he told his cousin, "Go with them. The kid is green and doesn't know what to do, he'll get in a jam and the spannerboy will try to save him. That's when an "accident" can happen. You'll look good coming back with the info after the other scouts die."

Shifty ran the idea through his head. As usual, it was a crappy Burnock-style plan that put him in the frying pan while his cousin strutted around in his shiny armor. Not that he had much choice. He started shucking his armor into a pile. He shouted to Milo. "You'll need a third. Three of us can handle any stray Lurkers and I'm as fast as either of you." Wearing just a miner's simple clothing, he grabbed his pick and walked up to Milo. There were a few murmurs of approval from the miners. They all knew this was a bad job, and their opinion of anyone who took it moved up just a bit. A few also scowled, knowing Shifty's reputation.

Two-Screws nodded in approval at Shifty and Vary shook his hand. The youngster looked longingly at the ale in his hand. Throttlecog walked over and handed his full flagon to Vary. "Here Lad, fortify yourself, it's a dangerous job. Go find the critter, stay out of fights, and let us know how many more little ones to expect and some info on the big one. Don't take chances; that's what you have Milo along for. He can't seem to stay out of trouble."

In a few gulps, the flagons were empty and a slice of cheese was eaten. The three scouts ran rapidly into the darkness, looking for trouble. It helped that all of them had good dark vision and a light tread. They stayed at the edges of the caves, trying to avoid being seen or heard. After moving through the large central caves for a few minutes, they saw a lone Stone Lurker shambling along. Vary looked like he wanted to charge it, but Shifty held him back. "Don't go off half-cocked. They look slow, but those big talons strike fast, like a praying mantis killing a beetle."

Milo nodded in agreement. "I can take hits better than either of you. Let me get its attention. Then you two can chip away at it. If it turns, back off immediately and run away just a little bit. I'll hit it and get it back on me. Ready?" The other two nodded. Shifty's keen eye noticed the armor that suddenly grew on Milo's arms and legs. Milo charged out, leaped, and spun in the air. A long, bony whip reached out and slashed at the Lurker, surprising it.

An excited Vary turned to Shifty. "Wow, is that an engineer thing? It looked like he was casting a spell."

Shifty was also wondering. He saw Milo take two chunks out of the Lurker's chest with his pick, and then just dance around, avoiding its strikes. The engineer waved at them to engage. The fight went well. Milo kept the beast's attention, and the two miners slowly depleted its health with dozens of hits. Only once did it turn on the two dwarves. Shifty took no chances, grabbing Vary by the arm and dragging him well out of the fight. Milo hit it twice more, crippling a leg and forcing it to focus on him. Vary and Shifty waded back in and finished it.

"Wow. That was awesome." Vary had seen little combat before this and was excited. Shifty turned to Milo. "Teaching fight?"

"Yes, I thought it would be good to build some teamwork with the youngster. I held back a lot and let you and Vary get the feel for how your new weapons could bite into it. Good job, both of you."

Vary was excited and proud. He'd gone into battle with an Engineer and gotten his first big kill. Shifty was troubled. Part of him wanted to sneer at the young one and tell him how easily life went to shit. Another part was enjoying the straightforward fight, and thrill of working with someone who took the risks and valued his teamwork. He was going to feel guilty when it all played out badly for his two 'partners', but that was ok. A bit of guilt let him know he wasn't at the bottom yet. Burnock hadn't expressed guilt even when they were children together.

The sound of rock scraping on rock let them know that more Lurkers were coming. Hopefully, that also meant the Brood mother was up ahead. This time it was a group of nine that was moving through the caverns, heading straight for the miners holding the line at the entrance to the city. Milo and his group stayed hidden in a side cave as they passed by, then continued. Three more times they passed groups of the immature Stone Lurkers, between six and ten in number. All were following the same path, heading towards the ongoing battle. Entering into what Vary said was one of the larger caverns, they traveled for over a mile before they finally found the monster they had been looking for. Milo stared at it in awe. The creature was huge, even bigger than the Myconian Ancient or the Snake. And quite possibly more powerful.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Vary was having trouble even looking at the creature from afar and his knees felt weak. Milo could just barely identify the creature. He said as much to the group. "I'm only getting the name: Stone Lurker Brood Mother. I can't see any information on her, its just too powerful."

Shifty chuckled.

"Let me give both of you a bit of advice: Work on your perception. Spend your points from the Miner's Guild to buy the Assaying skill from old Brickleback in the Assay Office. Then go up to the adventurers Guild, and do some quests for the halfling. You can get Legendary Lore and some other odd stuff like Magical Item Appraisal or Creature Identification. Try to gain experience in all those skills. You'll thank me down the line for that, if for nothing else. And if you spend a lot of time, and get Brickleback to like you, you can learn Gem Valuation. A little hint, he likes peanut brittle. I must have bought the old sucker twenty pounds of it. And there might be other skills you can find as well." He started walking closer. "Now let's take a good look at this monster." Shift concentrated, and then cursed quietly. "We are really screwed." He shared what he saw with the other two.

[Uthneragrubban, Brood Mother of the Stone Lurkers, Breaker of Heroes, the Earth Shatterer, Destroyer of Cities

Level 17 Monstrous World-Boss

Ablative Stone Armor, Brood-Mother, Crystalline, Stone Based Regeneration, Rumbler, Unique]

Shifty produced a flask of whiskey and downed half of it to steady his nerves. Vary turned white and his eyes got huge. Milo read the description and felt excited as well as fearful. Then remembered where it was headed. "That's really good advice. I'd have had no idea how tough this thing is. I've fought bosses before, but what's a World-Boss?"

"Shh...let's move back a bit before we get chatty, just in case." They moved back a full cavern and hid in a corner. After another sip of his whiskey, Shifty continued. "So, we have your basic progression of bosses: named, elite, monstrous, ancient, and then the bigger ones. Horrific, nightmare crap that no one talks about, probably because no one lived through the fights to tell the story. Named aren't much tougher than normal monsters. The most common are elementals that pop up near natural resources."

"Elites are pretty dangerous. You either need a group of people or be damned tough yourself and higher than their level."

"Monstrous creatures can take on a whole raid of creatures of their own Tier. All of the big Dungeon Bosses are Monstrous or higher."

"This thing is higher than that. Monstrous would normally mean she could take on a raid of 50 people in Tier 3 and Tier 4. But she's also Unique, which means she's got a special ability. World-Boss is bad news. They herald all sorts of shit."

He shuddered and

"The Blight Queen of Helagra? World Boss. At half of the Empire."

"The Dragon Father Typhon and his Queen Echidna? World Bosses. It took the Father of the Gods to defeat them, and Zeus had to cheat as well."

"Ever heard of a town called Serbule? Don’t worry, hardly anyone has. It got eaten by a giant Kraken named George. World Bosses are hard on cities."

"Something big is happening. Something happened down deep and stirred her up, or maybe killing a lot of her babies up here got her mad. Probably the start of a big quest, heroes running all over the world and glorious amounts of loot. Too bad we'll probably all be dead."

Shifty sat down and pulled a second flask out of his backpack and drank heavily. "Excuse me, wishing I'd never got all those levels in Legendary Lore right now. I think that I'd rather not know."

Milo's mind was whirling, trying to think of plans. Bone Crusher had been an Elite level 7. When he first encountered Salasha, she had been an Elite level 8 boss. He wished he had more info on Robazahl the Ancient or the Ever-Pudding. Of course, he’d had a lot of help killing them. Right now it was just the three of them and little in the way of resources other than lots of rock.

"You don't think we can beat her? Maybe I should head down and get the rest of the Deep Rock Engineer's Guild? What if we seal off the tunnels and trap her down here until we get help?"

Shifty took another drink and handed the flask to Vary. The youngster took a sip, and his face turned red, but he didn't spit it out. Shifty nodded at him. "Good lad. Never waste a swig of good whiskey."

He turned to Milo. "Stopping it isn't going to work. She'd never fit through the existing tunnels anyway. But she can wreck the stone, cause fissures in the rock, and then dig her way up. That's her special ability, breaking stone. But this area is already broken up. If she creates fissures big enough to get to the city, she'll crack open the harbor. We're pretty much right under it. How good are you at breathing seawater?"

Milo envisioned the sea racing down a crevice to the mines, flooding them and killing everyone. Then going lower, flooding cavern after cavern until it reached his friend Harry, and flooded the Deep Rock Guild. All of the caverns in this area would fill with seawater.

"Right. New plan. We fight her here, and we get help. Vary? I need you to take a message for me to Senior Engineers Throttlecog and Two-Screws, and one to Belinda the Healer." Milo slowed down to write two notes legibly.

Shifty had no idea what Milo was planning, other than suicide. "And what are you going to be doing?"

Milo was setting down his pack, and any gear he didn't need for a fight. "I'm going to go play with her and try to get an idea of how she fights. Maybe I can delay her. Can you go with Vary and guard him?"

Shifty eyed the youngster. "He's a runner. He'll make it. And he's faster than me. I'll stay here with you. Watch your back."

Milo slapped him on the back and smiled. "Glad to have you."

Somewhere inside of him, Shifty was very unhappy with himself. But that's how the world worked. One last job, then he and Burnock could get the hell upstairs where it might be safe. He wouldn't stop there. He had a small stash of coins and would get the hell out of town. Come to think of it, he knew how to get to Burnock's hidden treasure. He'd keep that safe and get it out of town as well. Burnock was probably going to die like anyone else who stayed here and wouldn't need it.

Vary was already on his way. He stumbled and nearly went sprawling when he received a notification.

[Your application to the Deep Rock Engineer's Guild has been approved.

Welcome, most junior brother, Varyhold of Clan Axegrinder. Senior Engineer Milo has approved your application to join his guild. Please report for testing, remedial lessons, and daily chores ASAP. Your slot in the Whirl-n-Hurl MKIV has been scheduled.]

Vary increased his pace, vigilant for Lurkers, with a huge smile on his face and determination in his eyes.