Evren was disappointed. They had arrived at the deserted dungeon town Usahd. The dungeon had been boarded up and the town emptied of anything usable long ago by residents leaving or scavenging looters. The reason why he was disappointed was the forge he was currently standing in. Naturally, everything had been taken from the forge, but he could tell the forge had been made properly and would be able to reach the temperatures he needed.
Unfortunately, he had left all of his tools in Anbuton, and that's where his disappointment stemmed from. Giving up on the forge, they wandered around the deserted town and stopped by the dungeon. The boards that had sealed off the entrance were old and rotten. It would be easy to tear them away and enter the dungeon. As Evren stared at the boards, Walter said, "I wonder how much this differs from the Aernide Dungeon."
Evren nodded and pulled a board out. "Well, if Walter wants to know, I guess we'll go in and see."
Harley snorted and covered her mouth as she giggled but didn't say anything. Once they had cleared enough boards they could fit through, they made their way down the passageway. They arrived at a room Evren assumed was the teleportation room and passed through it to head down to the first floor of the dungeon. Evren assumed it would have the difficulty level of the initial floors of the Aernide Dungeon and didn't draw his sword.
As they made their way to the 1st floor, Evren could tell through his sensory field the monsters that inhabited the first floor. "Goblins." He said to the others. The original four had fought goblins when heading south from Plinth and were accustomed to their antics. The others, however, had never fought them before.
"Goblins are tricky little fellas. They're weak, but they're fast and they usually come in large groups. They tend to run away when half their numbers are defeated, except in the dungeon. These ones fight to the death." Evren said as he pushed forward.
Walter was in the lead with Fletcher, who was wielding a sword with Ellis and Karina following them. Behind Karina was Bryan and Tim, followed by Harley and Isobel, who was using her daggers. Evren brought up the rear. The first group of goblins only consisted of five of them. The first one running in leapt at Walter and was promptly sliced in half. One had skirted past Fletcher to attack Ellis, but fletcher kicked it away. One was stabbed through the throat by Isobel, who suddenly appeared from the shadows of the room. Ellis launched a 'flame burst' at the one Fletcher had kicked away. The spell exploded, causing the goblin to light on fire, and be flung against the wall. Karina caught one about to leap at Walter with a 'zephyr' slicing it to pieces and scattering blood everywhere. One had snuck past everyone and was trying to attack Bryan when Harley killed it with 'icicle.'
The fight was over in a matter of seconds and Evren walked past everyone to pick up the blue mana gems. As he picked up the third one, he said, "That was probably the toughest group on this first floor. I can't sense any other groups over four goblins."
On the 2nd floor, were goblin commanders, which usually was the bigger one in each of the groups. The 3rd floor had larger groups of goblins with one or two commanders in them. On the 4th floor, the groups of goblins were between twenty and twenty-five with two to three commanders. On the 5th floor was a goblin general, two goblin commanders and fifteen goblins.
All of the fights were easy for the members, Bryan even getting a kill when he hit one accidentally with the walking staff he had been holding. The reward for killing the goblin general was a copper ring.
"Hmm…" Evren said as he pondered the drop. "I got a copper ring on the 5th floor of the Aernide Dungeon too. I hope that isn't standard loot."
Harley asked, "How deep are we going to go, Mr. Evren?"
Evren thought about it for a few minutes before saying. "I don't know. Depends on how satisfied Walter is."
"Hey, why am I the one that decides?" Walter asked.
"You're the one that wanted to know how much it is different that Aernide." Evren retorted.
"I didn't go to the first five floors of Aernide." Walter said.
"They were just lizards on the first five floors of Aernide. And honestly, disappointing. If it wasn't for the fact that we're all accustomed to much deeper levels, I'm sure this one would rate higher in difficulty in comparison." Evren surmised. "Which is kinda disappointing for being one of the older dungeons on the continent."
Isobel spoke up, "I say it's Fletcher's fault."
Fletcher said, "Yeah, it was me. I changed the Aernide Dungeon to make it disappointingly easy."
"See? He admits it!" Isobel said with a smile.
While the group was laughing among each other, they made their way to the 6th floor. What walked out in front of the group was a goblin that was bigger than a general, with a bald head and a bloated belly. Its arms and legs were longer than the body and it looked a big gangly. In one hand it held a wooden club, but it stood there in a daze as it looked at the party.
After a moment, it raised its weapon and tried to hit Tim. Walter slid in before it, deflecting the blow and stabbing the monster in the chest. "So, what was that, Evren?"
"Hmmmm…. Hobgoblin?" Evren said as much as he asked.
"You don't know?" Walter asked.
"Well, it fits the description, but I thought it'd be a bit fiercer than that." Evren said in self-defense.
Ellis spoke up, "It really was comical."
"Right? It just stood there and stared at us." Karina added.
The team made their way through the levels like that. Chatting and laughing as if they were visiting an amusement park. Hobgoblin commanders were introduced on the 8th floor, and on the 10th floor was a much larger hobgoblin that was wearing a red cap. Its stomach wasn't as bloated, and it looked much fiercer than the previous hobgoblins. In its hand it held a dagger.
Evren said, "Oh I know this one! That's a red cap. They're supposed to be like super dangerous."
Walter said, "Oh?" He stepped forward with a slash that split the red cap from waist to shoulder in an instant. The team was rewarded with a blue mana gem and a silver ring.
"I thought you said they were super dangerous." Walter asked.
"Well yeah, to newbies with crappy iron swords. Not a blade master with a scarletite sword."
Evren thought for a bit and said, "I think if it continues with this pattern, the next few levels will be filled with orcs, then maybe ogres after that, possibly trolls too, but their regeneration can be a pain in the ass, so they'd probably be deeper."
He thought about it a little more and said, "Could be a bunch of other things too. I mean I could go through the list of stuff I had to kill in Aernide and all of that could probably be found in here too, so what am I going on about and why am I rambling on?"
"Because you're old?" Walter said with a smile.
"You shut up." Evren retorted.
Everyone laughed and they headed to the 11th floor. On this floor, as Evren had guessed, were orcs. Evren sighed and said, "You guys wanna go up? It's kind of boring and getting late."
Harley said, "I'm getting hungry too."
Fletcher said, "Yeah, let's head up." Others also agreed, so they turned around and headed back to the 10th floor where the teleport sigil was at. They teleported to the surface in two groups and made their way out of the dungeon.
The sky was beginning to darken, so they walked around town for a bit until they found an abandoned building that could house all of them. In the morning, they stopped by the dungeon and put the wood pieces back in place and headed out of town, following the road east.
As they traveled along the road, Evren suddenly perked up and said, "Oh that's more like it! Isobel, there's a thunder hog south of us."
Isobel smiled and said, "On it!" dashing off into the forest.
Fletcher was chasing after her shouting, "Hey! You got the last one!"
Isobel shouted a reply, "Race you to it slow poke!"