“These aren’t the jerks that tried to kill us, so we’ll keep things normal for this group,” Hoen said.

I found that I could tap into the system that Glenda and Hoen used to run the dungeon, which meant I could see everywhere inside the place. At first, when I tapped into the system, I became dizzy and felt like I was seasick. That was because the system tried to show me every view at once. My human brain couldn’t process that much information, so I was able to get Hoen to dumb things down for me.

Now, I could switch views like I was a security guard cycling through all the different cameras at the mall, watching each store for shoplifters. If I wanted, I could even pin the view to anything inside the dungeon, allowing me to follow the progress of the adventurers without any trouble. Getting my first look at the party of adventurers, they seemed about what I’d expected.

There were eight of them, and four were geared up in chainmail with shields and various one-handed melee weapons. Two more wore leather armor that wasn’t all that different than mine and carried longbows. One wore what looked like simple robes and given the ball of light hovering over her head, I assumed she must be a spellcaster of some sort. The final member of the party was a bit more unusual, a gnome walking around in an armored suit. It was like a scaled down version of my mech, but only the size of an orc.

I gave the gnome a good look, but he didn’t resemble anyone I knew from Fitzfazzle’s village. The tech was obviously gnomish, but quite a bit different than what Fitzfazzle had cooked up. It was more like an exoskeleton suit than a true mech, and the gnome inside was visible and vulnerable. The suit did carry an impressive looking giant hammer that looked like it could do some serious damage.

With my view over the dungeon unlocked, I could get my first glimpse of the defenders of this floor. Just as Hoen had warned, our defenders were rather limited. I counted a total of three rabbits that were the size of small dogs, and a humanoid plant creature. The rabbits were in one of the first rooms of the floor, and the plant guy was in the room right before the glade I was in.

This level of the dungeon looked like a night shrouded forest, but we were underground, and the adventurers had limited options to proceed forward. Hoen advised that the first floors of a dungeon were generally pretty simple things and didn’t’ have complicated secret doors or multiple paths to the floor guardian. Our little floor of the dungeon had six rooms in total, and the adventurers had just entered the one with the rabbits.

As soon as they spotted the first adventurer, the rabbits went bonkers and charged forward. Their eyes glowed red and claws extended from their paws as wicked looking fangs replaced the square front teeth of the rabbits. The adventurers were prepared, and the four armored warriors formed a line to block the rabbits while the two archers began to fire.

I felt bad for the bunnies, they weren’t anywhere near strong enough to deal with the adventurers, and never even got close before they were filled with arrows. Hoen noticed my disappointment and let me know that the three rabbits in the first room were there to provide a challenge for new adventurers. Normally, the next few rooms would slowly ramp up the difficulty, but they were currently devoid of any defenders.

The adventurers paused next to each rabbit corpse, and as they reached toward them, the bodies vanished into mana vapor and whatever Glenda passed out as loot was left behind. There were no cries of joy over whatever they got, and with the whole group of them crowded around, blocking my view of the reward. While not enough to cause them to cheer, the rewards must have been good enough to spur them on since the party continued to walk deeper into the nearly undefended dungeon.

“Hey Rico, get cracking, you don’t want to be a disappointment, do you?” Hoen asked.

“Sorry about that,” I said as I began to summon my minions.

First, I summoned the ghoul, but instead of the monster I expected, a lanky chimpanzee stood in his place. The ghoul was the same creep he normally was, and I could feel him pressing against my control as he tried to get at fluffy little Hoen, who must have looked like quite the tasty treat. Before I summoned my next minion, I cast Duplicate on the ghoul, and the duplicate also looked like a chimpanzee.

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“This doesn’t seem like the kind of forest that would have chimps living in it,” I said to Hoen. The forest had more of a European vibe to it than a tropical forest or savanna where I’d expect to find chimpanzees.

“Give me a break, at least it’s an animal, not some undead freak,” Hoen replied, shrugging off my complaint.

Rupert looked about the same, but his outfit had changed to overalls, giving him the look of a gardener. Hoen proved extra helpful and was able to conjure up a pitchfork for Rupert using the dungeon’s mana reserve. My final summon was the dog, who now looked normal. After buffing everyone with Empower Minion, I tried to figure out placement.

“Any suggestions on where everyone should go?” I asked Hoen.

“There’s an art to this, you want to keep up the theme, but also make it dangerous. Hmm, why don’t we do this. Have the farmer and his dog on the porch of the house. The ghoul chimps can stay hidden in the forest, charging out when the party starts to attack the dwarf. For the final hurrah, you and I will wait inside the house, ready to take on anyone who makes it past your crew,” Hoen suggested.

“That sounds good, but I’d like to join the fight earlier. My spells and abilities are focused on helping my minions in the fight,” I added.

“Nah, don’t worry about that, you aren’t restricted to line of sight here, since you can see everywhere at once. You’re part of the dungeon now, Rico, and that has certain privileges,” Hoen added. He was right, I found that I could now target any of my spells anywhere in the dungeon. Even better, I could target the other defenders since they were essentially summoned minions, and the dungeon had granted me authority over them.

As the party entered the room before ours, the plant man remained hidden in the forest. It was only when the adventurers were about to pass into the next room that he struck. Just before he attacked, I hit him with Empower Minion, and was happy to see the vines that made up his arms grow some nasty looking thorns. The plant monster caught the adventurers by surprise, they had been lulled into a sense of safety as they passed empty room after empty room.

The adventurers reacted quickly, with their mage shooting a stream of fire into the plant monster. Its leaves and vines blackened and crumbled, but not before it managed to get close enough to lash out at the gnome. With a swing of his hammer, the gnome in his exoskeleton turned the plant monster into pulp, but not before the thing got some vines around the gnome’s head. The lashing vines with the added thorns tore up the gnome’s face, but a spell from their caster soon healed the damage.

As cool as the gnomish exoskeleton mech looked, the gaps in the armor were a major drawback. I wouldn’t be trading my MESS key for one anytime soon. We were now the last defenders on this floor, and it was showtime. The adventurers slowly entered the glade, wary now that they had been attacked, and likely realizing this was going to be a tougher encounter than a trio of overgrown rabbits or a single plant monster.

I let the party see Rupert and the hound before I ordered them to duck behind the crumbling railing on the porch. There was no reason to give the archers free target practice. If these adventurers wanted loot, they’d have to come up close and get it.

The adventurers kept the same formation as before, the warriors in front, the archers on the flanks, and the gnome and spellcaster in the back. Poor Rupert and the dog didn’t have any ranged attacks, so they’d have to wait until the enemy closed in. If I had them charge forward, there was no way they would make it more than a few steps before being cut down.

My ghouls were another story, and they hurled their chimpanzee-looking bodies toward one of the archers when the party passed close to the tree they were hiding behind. The adventurers reacted quickly, but the archer seemed shocked when his arrow had little effect on the chimpanzee running toward him. Drawing a thin rapier, the archer switched to melee combat, calling out to his companions as he fought.

One of the ghouls accepted a stab to the chest since taking the blow allowed the undead creature within reach of his prey. Claws punched through the light leather armor the archer wore, and he screamed in pain as the second ghoul bit down on the archer’s shoulder. All at once, the archer’s cries cut off as his body turned stiff as a board before dropping to the floor of the glade. They may have looked like chimps, but their ghoul claws still held danger for the unwary.

Another blast of flame from the caster, and a hammer blow from the gnome ended the ghoul duo. Rupert and the dog fell a few moments later as the warriors reached the front porch. When the door was kicked in and the adventurers flooded into the house, I fired off a Psionic Jolt before swinging my hammer with wild abandon. A swipe of an adventurer’s sword ended my attack and left me bleeding and slowly sliding to the floor in pain.

At least I got some satisfaction when a Riposte triggered off the adventurer’s attack. My hammer slammed into the face of the warrior that had just gutted me. It wasn’t anywhere near a fatal blow, but the guy would be spitting out teeth once the fight was over. Before my vision faded, I could see Hoen had transformed into one of the giant rabbits before launching his own unsuccessful assault.

You have fallen to the adventurers. The summoning link with the dungeon allows you to utilize their respawns system. Please wait while the system restores you.

That was different. It looked like I wasn’t heading back to my personal space just yet. I had an extra crack at this, and given how tough adventurers had proven to be, I was going to need all the chances that I could get.