DAY 197

"Well, well, well! It's the hairy child and her team again! Welcome back to Worthy Dungeon, it's been months!"

Tinsel growls up at the smiling door, an effect that's rather ruined by the high pitch of her voice. "Hey! Mousekin! Not a child! I'm twenty-five now! We've been over this, I'm sure you remember it!"

Doorman grins, his wooden teeth on full display. "I know, I know, but I just couldn't help myself! You're so adorable when you're angry!"

"Yeah!? Well, we'll see how adorable you are when an acid bomb is dripping down your..." Tinsel's teammates are about to move to stop the tiny party leader, but with a deep breath she manages to take control of herself first. "...No, no. Gotta be professional. How about you greet me with a proper title, and we don't attempt to break into the dungeon the hard way?"

"Seesh, okay, okay! My apologies. Shall we start again? Welcome back to Worthy Dungeon! Although it's been a while, I believe all of you have cleared up to Floor Three previously - would you like to skip ahead to Floor Four?"

The Battle Alchemist raises a paw-like hand as she shakes her head. "Later, yeah, but first we'd like to meet with your newest boss, just a basic conversation, yeah? Trush of Tash'narc, is that an option?"

The Guardian frowns as he considers his response. "Hrmm, well, I can ask, one moment..."

A few moments go by before he has his answer. "I'm afraid the Master of the dungeon has denied your request. The dungeon has no official relationship with the army of the Valleylands, so I'm afraid there's no 'free pass' available for you today. Unless you have some urgent personal request for the man?"

Kalasha, the team's Sniper, steps forward. "We would like to speak with the Shieldbreaker concerning his decision to join the dungeon - and his experiences within it. We wish to see how he feels about his new life, now that he's had a chance to get some time to see what it's actually like."

"Hrmm, yes, that's not personal enough, I'm afraid. You're welcome to try and find him within the dungeon, though, perhaps he'll be willing to answer your questions before trying to kill you? No promises!"

Tinsel grumbles. "Sometimes, I really hate army work. Alright, send us through to Floor Four, let's see what this 'forest' of yours is all about..."

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DAY 198

"Well, well, you've come back! I thought you might, but not the very next day! Very industrious of you, considering the injuries you displayed when you left yesterday!"

Tinsel grumbles. "Yeah, yeah, don't remind me." Indeed, the previous day had been very rough on the Valleylands team. As it turned out, as a Shadow Priestess Haylizt actually had very few good defenses against shades, and so Floor Four had hit several members of the team with decay magic-based wounds before they finally cleared it. Floor Six had gone somewhat smoother, with Kalasha sniping the aerial threats before they got too close, and Jantana and Mesht handling the melee-based monsters quite easily.

However, the fight against Taly had nearly gotten the minotaur Regenerator killed. The Rogue successfully baited the woman into stepping onto one of the pitfall traps covering the ledge half of her cliffside arena, and Jantana's large size both saved her and almost doomed her. The trap wasn't quite sized for minotaurs, so Jantana had managed to keep one arm held on to the edge, but it took the efforts of her entire team to actually safely get her back up. Haylizt had to engage in the slightly embarrassing technique of webbing a net for the woman to keep her from slipping, while Mesht was one of the only ones strong enough to actually try and lift her out. With both of their heavies occupied, Tinsel and Kalasha had to engage in every area-denial attack they had available to keep Taly from taking advantage of the moment and finishing at least one of them off. Kalasha turned out to be at least Taly's equal in the archery department though, and a solid shot through the boss's shoulder gave the Valleylanders the time they needed to recover and eventually win the fight.

They still had yet to actually encounter Trush, and the new Floor Seven still lay before them, but by that point the party was too exhausted to risk attempting the least well-known of the dungeon's hazards. Their injuries were easily healed, however, and so the soldiers had climbed up the frozen mountain yet again.

"We're gonna skip ahead to Floor Seven today, yeah? But...they say Trush is a Wandering Boss, right? You ain't gonna make us skip ahead of the man if we do, are you? That'd be mean, you know."

Doorman chuckles at the mousekin's concerns. "We're not a cruel dungeon, you know! That said, I'd recommend keeping your eyes open, if you don't want to miss anything..."

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When the party arrived in the entry section of Floor Seven, it took them a few moments to adjust to how...orange everything was. It went beyond just the flickering light of dungeon torches, instead this portion of the dungeon was lit up by mana-charged gemstones, jutting out of the cavern walls at odd angles. Although they could come in many colors, in this first chamber orange was the pick, and it took some time to adjust their eyes after just being outdoors on a sunny mountainside. After a few blinks though, Tinsel is ready to get to business.

"Alright, one last quick review, yeah? A couple of teams have poked their heads in here, but if they learned anything they're keeping it to themselves. The Association's done an inspection, but the info's mostly limited to the floor being 'crystal and mineral based', which...thanks, couldn't have figured that out myself in five seconds, right? Heavies, keep to your smashy-weapons. Kalasha, watch out for ambushes, Wanderers tend not to...sit around in one spot much, as the name implies."

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Jantana and Mesht nod affirmatively as they ready their weapons, having prepared a warhammer and a mace for this particular floor, given the weakness of blades against earth-aspected monsters. Mesht was rather drawn to the floor itself though, and took a few steps to one side to admire one of the smaller clumps of gemstones growing out of the walls. "Do you think these are worth anything? Not that we're equipped for mining, as such. They certainly look impressive, at least."

The team's Sniper shakes her head. "The mana-charged storage crystals being used for lighting could be, though I doubt the rest are anything actually rare. But even those can only be taken out of the dungeon if the dungeon's modified them in that way - and no way it amped up a crystal the size of your head just so you could walk out with it. Most magic experts have the senses to detect if something's been powered up like that, or the Association sells items that can do it, but honestly, I'll just stick to what comes out of the treasure chests. Haylizt, do you have training in that sort of thing?"

The drider frowns. "If something was very charged up with mana, perhaps, but given these are already mana storage crystals, I'm not sure I could tell the difference. Um..." She trails off as she notices one of the clumps of gems next to Mesht's hand seems to be...moving. "Is that normal for dungeon gemstones?"

"Is what normal? The glowing - ah!" Mesht shouts in surprise as the moving bundle of rocks suddenly leaps onto his hand and bites him, puncturing through his gauntlet to do so. "Fuck! Monster!"

"...Excellent scouting, Vanguard, well done. Heads up, watch your backs!" Tinsel's concern grows slightly when she notices other shards of gems slowly crawling across the floor, creeping up on the party, although their speed picks up significantly once they realize they've been made. While Mesht slams his wounded hand against the cavern wall, hopefully injuring the monster latched onto him more than he's injuring himself, Jantana takes charge of protecting the rest of the squad. Kalasha picks off one of the gem mimics still at range, but a sweep of the minotaur's warhammer smashes four of the closer creatures in a single blow, sending them flying across the chamber.

"They shatter easily! They're still low-tier!"

"Tough enough to chew through metal!" Mesht growls as he finally kills the monster biting away at him, before taking his mace and crushing two more that were skittering up to him. As the last of them - as far as they can tell - finally goes still, Tinsel picks up one of the remains to take a good look at it. No longer in any state to hide itself, the true form of the mimics is almost crustacean-like. Eyestalks poke out of the gems growing on the creature's back, while stiff tendrils seem to serve as its legs. A devious mouth is revealed when she flips it over, a tiny orifice with multiple sets of teeth, perhaps to make up for its small size with a quantity of puncture wounds.

"Gah, that's some creepy-ass shit. Never ran into mimics before, and I was just fine with that! Life sucks enough without having to worry about if every random treasure chest and doorknob is going to bite you! Ugh, whatever. You gonna die on us, Mesht?"

The Vanguard Charger frowns as he pours a healing potion on his hand. "Will be fine to fight in a minute, Alchemist, though my gauntlet is going to need serious repairs. Apologies for not being more on-guard."

"Well, whatever doesn't kill you teaches you something, so just keep on not dying then. Let's see if we can clear the second room without any casualties!"

As they move onward it seems that perhaps the floor's chambers are somewhat color-coded, as the next cavern is lit up in a brighter yellow. There's no telling if the coloring actually means something, but they don't need to wait long to find out what sort of opponent they might be facing. As soon as everyone's fully inside the chamber, flames seem to spring up around some of the larger crystal formations. Or at least, that's how it looks at first, until they notice that the fires are...crawling. Pointed, insectoid legs climb their way up prismatic columns, and as more of the creatures reveal themselves, it becomes apparent that they have a set of four wings on their backs as well. They're perhaps only the size of dinner plates, but the intimidation factor certainly scales up quite a bit considering they appear to be made entirely of flame. Kalasha shouts out a tentative identification.

"Some sort of fire sprites! Focus on magical counter-measures!" While the orc hastily swaps out her crossbow bolt, Jantana charges forward with a yell, not bothering to change her armament. While her warhammer might be of limited effectiveness against living fire, her role is to protect her party and buy them time, and at that task she certainly succeeds. As her weapon smashes into the nearest giant crystal, seven of the monsters leap into the air and fly in her direction. When they land on her they do burn, somewhat, but their primary attack appears to be their legs which jab into the woman's skin like scalding daggers. She roars in response, but the pain only fuels her, her rage powering her self-regenerating magic and causing the wounds to begin to disappear almost as quickly as they were given.

Haylizt slowly wears down one of the monsters with darkness magic, while Kalasha takes out another with an elementally-charged bolt, but for the most part the team is only buying time for Tinsel to do her thing. Eventually the mousekin finishes grabbing through her bottomless bags, and lifts a bottle with a shout. "Aha! Glad now I scooped up that mountain snow on the way back down yesterday, cause this is just what we need! Hold onto your hats, Blizzard Bomb out!"

The tiny woman hurls the bottle with all of her strength, not at Jantana or the other monsters around the room, but rather the center of the chamber ceiling. Her throw is enhanced by more than mere strength, however - newly trained Expert-level magical abilities increase the throwing power of her arm, while another charges up the bottle itself, preparing to amplify its effects. And amplified it is - the second the glass shatters against the stone ceiling, a gust of cold wind blows across the chamber. Yet it doesn't stop there - the wind continues picking up before starting to swirl, and before long it's filled with mist and snowflakes. Even then it doesn't stop, continuing to pick up speed and drop temperature, the snowflakes soon being replaced by small pieces of hail.

The storm is only slightly bothersome to her party, who were all dressed for such weather given the climb it took to get here, but it's absolutely devastating to the devas. A few who foolishly take into the air are torn apart by wind and ice, and even those who latch onto the ground find themselves severely weakened by the cold. Just as the enhanced bomb begins to wear off the party gets back to work, smashing and blasting each of the monsters before they're given a chance to recover. In their current states even Mesht's mundane mace is able to finish them off, and by time the last snowflake has fallen, the chamber has been cleared.

Shaking slightly to get some of the snow off of her shoulders, Jantana shoots Tinsel a grin. "Well! That was a step or two above what I've seen you use before! Do you have many more tricks like that up your sleeves?"

The mousekin grimaces. "Recipes? Yeah, I learned a bunch during my last training, and ways to enhance them when I toss em - that one had an area-of-effect booster on it, actually. As for what I've actually got on me? The army doesn't just hand out high-end reagents like candy, finding a bunch of mountain snow to preserve was actually a big bonus for me. I maybe got a couple, of course, but let's try not to need em, yeah? Crafting shit between runs is a pain in the tail."

The minotaur nods, as the last of her wounds seal shut. "Very well. But keep them handy - the closer we get to the end of the floor, the more likely it is we'll run into the Shieldbreaker..."