The group descended the stairs for several minutes before coming out into another roughhewn cavern, the same smokeless torches mounted along the walls. This cavern seemed the same as the others they had passed through except for the sporadic roots they could see poking out of the walls and the lichen covering some of the rocks.

"What kind of plant could have roots this far under a mountain?" Kyle asked.

Blixie just giggled. "Those are just made by the dungeon to help the looks of the dungeon and to give the monsters down here something to chew on." she explained as she flew over to one of the smallest roots she could find and pulled it straight out of the wall. The hole where the root came out of was only about an inch deep and the root had no signs of tearing on the end. "See?"

"So, the dungeon monsters need to eat?" Garrett asked. "I'll have to think about how that will work if I ever start a dungeon of my own again."

"No, they don't." Blixie replied. "It just gives them something to do so they don't get bored. Like a dog chewing on a stick."

"I guess that is why we didn't see any quests for these roots then."

"I found some!" April cheered as she hurried over to the wall of the cave. She reached for a couple of brown mushrooms when a dull clang rang out.

The others looked over and saw some large claws had poked out of the wall and slammed into April's chest. A small snout could be seen poking out of the wall beside the arm attached to the claws. April grabbed the arm and pulled, using the knowledge from her past Judo classes, and out popped a large mole that would come up to April's knees if it was standing beside her. She twisted and slammed the mole on the ground before quickly drawing a kali stick and caving its head in.

"Are you okay?" Garrett called out to April.

"Just a few dents." She said and with a couple of small popping noises the small dents where the claws had hit fixed themselves. "I'm just glad it was me it attacked. It probably would have gone straight through you Garrett." She said with a chuckle.

A squeal of pain came from underneath Kyle as a large paw could be seen jutting up from the floor and into his gelatinous body, just missing his core. Kyle's body rippled as he pulled the unfortunate mole out of the ground and fully into himself to drown it in a matter of seconds. "Are these supposed to be tougher than the ants?" He asked as the mole quickly dissolved due to his acidic slime.

"Kyle," Garrett called out. "We need to get parts off of those moles for the quests. Don't just eat them."

"Oops." Kyle chuckled and spat out a small claw. "Didn't mean to do that." The group waited a couple of minutes to see if any other moles would appear but were disappointed.

"The moles should be a little bit tougher than the ants since they won't attack in groups and can appear from anywhere, but they seem to be a bad match for you guys in general." Blixie said.

"How do you mean Blixie?" April said as she grabbed some other mushrooms she had seen.

"Well, April is just a walking suit of armor so there are no squishy bits to damage. While Kyle is all squishy bits, but no vital points except for your core that is randomly floating about." Blixie explained in here best teacher voice. "They have a decent chance of hurting Garretts body but since it is just made of dirt and stone, he could easily just make a new one."

"I see your point." April said. "So, this should be a pretty easy dive for us is what you're saying."

"Don't get overconfident now." Blixie warned. "That is the downfall of many adventurers."

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"We will be careful Blixie." Garrett said as he waved the group down the tunnel leading further into the dungeon.

They had gone through several more rooms quickly dispatching moles with well-placed strikes from April's Kali sticks or Kyle slamming and slicing them with his tentacles. Garrett even got a few shots in with some stone spears he flung at the moles. "Looks like another dead end." April said as they entered the latest room. "At least there are some more mushrooms." She walked over and reached for the patch of mushrooms on the far wall.

"Pull." Kyle called out. April quickly swiveled her body to the left, narrowly avoiding the claw that shot out at her chest. She grabbed the arm and pulled the mole out and tossed it into the air where a spear of rock buried itself into the mole's chest killing it.

"That new Tremor Sense ability of yours is pretty handy." Garrett said to Kyle.

"Thanks." Kyle replied.

April grabbed the mushrooms off the wall. "That's the last of the mushrooms we need for the quest." She said as she turned to see the mole dissolve into motes of light, a small claw left behind. "And there is the last of the claws we needed as well."

Garrett picked up the claw and put it into his inventory space where the other quest items sat. "I think it's kind of weird that we haven't seen any treasure chests yet." Garrett sighed.

"I didn't really think about it but why haven't we run into any treasure chests yet?" Kyle chimed in.

"Why do you think there would be any treasure chests this high up in the dungeon?" Blixie asked.

"This is a dungeon of the smithing god. I would have thought we would have found at least one chest with a dagger or helmet or something." Garrett told Blixie.

She laughed. "Gra'tok'ta is the god of smithing, not the god of giving out stuff for zero effort. Dungeons typically provide the raw materials to make things. I have only heard of weapons or armor being made by very old, very powerful dungeons, and even then, they would only rarely drop them as loot in their deepest, deadliest floors. Otherwise, what is the point of being a blacksmith or alchemist if the dungeons just provided everything.

The group thought about it for a bit. "I guess that makes sense." Garrett said. "It would probably throw commerce for a loop if people where just pulling out swords or potions from the dungeons on a regular basis."

"Let's head back to that last tunnel and hope it leads to the boss so we can finish up this dungeon run and turn in these quests." Garrett said.

"I need to pick up some more iron ore when we get out. I need to use some every time I fix my armor, and I am running low." April said.

"I'm also starting to run low on mana." Garrett said. "It is really hard to pull in the mana here for some reason."

"That's because we are in a dungeon." Blixie explained. "Unless the dungeon willing gives you mana it's practically impossible to absorb."

"Then why does the dungeon need to permeate its area with mana?"

"Like I explained before, suffusing mana throughout the area lets the dungeon grow its influence and the stronger the dungeon monsters are the more mana is required for them to survive."

"Just like people need air to survive. If there is not enough then they die." Kyle said.

"Exactly. Glad someone can understand. Just think of mana like air for dungeon monsters since even the weakest ones can't survive for long outside their dungeon."

"I get it. I am idiot when it comes to being a dungeon but at least I have a great teacher to help me with that." Garrett said sarcastically as the group headed back the way they had come and went down the other fork of the tunnel. "I just hope that I can level up after this boss fight. I am still level two for some reason." He complained.

"As this great teacher of yours told you in the beginning, you need to kill enemies that are in your influence." Blixie remarked. "And you have only been killing things at range with those stone spikes of yours."

Kyle burst into laughter while April chuckled a bit. "I can't believe you haven't leveled since I have been with you." Kyle said between breaths. "I've gained at least two levels since then."

Garrett looked at April. "I have gained a couple of levels as well." She said.

"Fine, then I want to get in melee with the boss." Garrett said in frustration. "I'm going to kill it and level up."

The group entered a large circular room with several boulders lining the walls and some smaller stones scattered throughout the room. "Is that a giant armadillo?" April asked aloud.

"What's an armadillo?" Blixie asked as the group saw what looked like a giant mole covered in segmented armor made from stone. It reminded Garrett of a large version of the pangolin they had seen before except that it was twice as big as the moles they had been fighting. The long claws glinted dully as if made from some kind of metal. "That is a dire mole." Blixie told them. "They are a lot stronger than the moles you have fought so far, and this one looks bigger than the ones I was taught about."

"Still want to stab it with your stick?" Kyle chuckled.