Chapter 2

  The party backtracked back to the entrance of the mega dungeon, through room after room. They’d cleared around 50 rooms, give or take a few smaller ones they weren’t really counting. The path they followed back was pretty straightforward, twists and turns here and there but for the most part it was a simple non-convoluted path. Other teams had been less fortunate and had maze-like structures to contend with, some of their paths even looping back on themselves.

  Elven once again led the way though nothing in the mega dungeon seemed to reset while people were in it. He still double checked traps and made sure to consult Dearth’s map to ensure rooms were what they were supposed to be, it did not pay to be careless. It took the rest of the day for them to make it back to the entrance where people were sat camped around fires, laughing and eating all kinds of dishes. There were plenty of combat themed adventurers lounging around and guarding the perimeter as well.

  Once out of the dungeon Dearth takes the lead and leads the party towards a roughly six foot tall dark skinned man in shining plate mail and dark leather combat boots of higher quality than the ones most of the adventurers wore around. The man was imposing and kept a constant vigil on everything going on within the makeshift camp site around the dungeon’s entrance.

  ---

  Dearth

  “Ryder!” Dearth called out “We found some good stuff and need a climbing rig built out for a deep drop.”

  Ryder, the man that had his hand in every pie here, turned to Dearth as he called out and replied “Eh? Found something good then? Hope its more than that smattering of dungeon iron you found last time. That vein had almost nothing in it.”

  “It looked bigger on the outside..” Dearth muttered, coming to a stop before the man. “No, we found more enchanted tree’s than you’ll ever be able to cut down.”

  “How many we talkin?” Ryder asked.

  “Tens of thousands at least, an entire jungle of them stretching as far as the eye can see in almost every direction.” Dearth replied.

  The man running the show hmmed for a moment with a far away sparkle in his eye. “This dungeon gets odder and odder, we’ll have to see what you’ve got. Path forward clear?”

  “Yessir, walked it back with no issues just now.”

  “Good good, you look tired. Take the night, I’ll organize a scouting team to check it out, and you can head back out after a bit o food in the morning. You said you needed a climbing rig setup?” Ryder asked.

  “Yea – two thousand or so foot drop off a sheer cliff, we could scout more of the top section, but Elven states it didn’t look too promising, no natural features to go off of. Not that the lower floor had a ton, but he has a better feeling about it and I trust his gut.” Dearth stated. Elven shuffled a little at the praise behind with the rest of the group, Eostre noticed this and lightly jabbed Elven in the side with her elbow while grinning widely.

  “Well.. We brought plenty of rope but we’ll have to wrap some more up after this – that’s just about everything we got. We’ll hit the communication array and have them start prepping more, they can send us a group to bring it up the bridge and run it out.” Ryder commented, mostly to himself.

  “That about covers it.” Dearth said which earned him a “Alright then, get some rest, dismissed.”

  Dearth turned and nodded to his party “We’ve got the night off, enjoy it.”, cheers erupted from a couple of them, Eostre and Leoma specifically, the others nodded and the party went off to find some food, the stew smelled amazing. Chadwick and Wulf took off in separate directions looking for alternatives to the stew. Dearth lagged a little behind the party and glanced fondly at them as they bounced off to find food.

  His eyes turned towards Leoma, a member of the ‘Exitium Sororibus’ - a group composed entirely of battle hardened women with a focus on front line combat. Leoma was his party’s healer, though it’d be hard to reconcile that for most as she was a front line combatant that wore heavy armor and wielded a two-handed battleaxe. Most healers were back-liners and focused entirely on healing and curing ailments. Not Leoma though, she had skills that would heal the party when she attacked an enemy, and she thoroughly enjoyed attacking the enemy.

  Seeing nothing amiss with Leoma he glanced over Elven next, the scout of the party wore some enchanted leather armor that gave the armor more bang for its buck, increasing the toughness value well past standard leather armor. Elven had a short bow strapped to his back and a rapier at his waist. He was quick on his feet and a great scout, catching ambushes well before they walked into them. He was also better at finding traps than any of rest of the party.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  The group arrived at the large cooking pot filled with stew and the four of them snagged a bowl, the hearty meal comprised of multiple vegetables, some thick brown meat, and seasoned with some of Dearths favorite seasonings, all in a thick brown gravy. Exactly what you would want out of a good stew. The four of them made their way over to a mostly empty campfire, Dearth nodding at a couple of other adventurers as they sat down.

  “Is that snorth in the stew?” Eostre asked incredulously.

  “Think so.” Leoma responded.

  “It is snorth, a bit of plakle too, love plakle in my stews.” Elven said, after having taken a bite. “Still hot though.”

  “Plakle is that lightly sweet seasoning, right?” Dearth asked, unsure.

  “Yes. Snorth adds a deep savory to the dish, and the plakle sweetens it just a tad.” Elven responded..

  “Ah, I’m more of a sizzle man myself.” Dearth added while pulling a cloth wrapped bundle from his bag. He unwrapped the bundle and ripped off a bit of sizzle, sprinkling it into the stew and stirring it in.

  Eostre wrinkled her nose and said “I can’t stand sizzle, its too spicy it makes my nose run.”

  “Hah huh, runny nose. Give some sizzle please.” Leoma asked while reaching over to Dearth without waiting for a response. Dearth chuckled and ripped off some of the spicy seasoning for her.

  While the four of them were digging into their stews Chadwick and Wulf approached with meals of their own. As they approached Dearth took a moment to examine them. Chadwick the Aerial Knight was wearing heavy plate mail, thick leather pants and the black combat boots everyone wore, though his soles were reinforced against fall damage. Chadwick was a bit haughty, but very good at what he did, Dearth just wished he didn’t complain so much.

  Wulf on the other hand almost never complained, he was straightforward and dependable considering his skill load out. Usually people with similar skill sets were thieves or lurked in the shadows causing problems for people. The man kept mostly to himself but he had opened up a bit over the last year, joining in on the banter occasionally. He wore the standard leather armor, anti-snake pants, and combat boots, enchanted armor was hard to come by as it got torn up pretty quickly and often wasn’t worth the cost of replacing it constantly.

  The two men sat down and joined the party with plates filled with leafy green salad and a leg of roasted poultry each, the poultry was golden brown sprinkled with torn snorth. The leafy green salad had torn bits of a flat green leaf, red bulbs of a watery vegetable and was sprinkled with shredded cheese. “Is that Oozl?” Eostre asked of the guys that had just joined.

  “It is.” Wulf said plainly.

  “Their tail feathers are so long and pretty!” Eostre added, “I don’t think I’ve had any though – how does it taste?”

  “Exquisitely.” Chadwick added and then took a bite out of his leg o’ Oozl. Oozl was a small bird-like monster that usually didn’t come off of the World Eater, it wasn’t overly aggressive unless you got near its nest and tried to mess with its offspring.

  “I wonder if I can sneak over there and pretend I haven’t eaten yet.” Eostre said. She may not be able to pack it away quite like Leoma but she did well enough when she put in the effort. Adventuring was a energy intensive activity and the amount of calories that adventurers put away was astonishing. They could bankrupt small cities with the cost of feeding large groups of them.

  The party ate and rested for the night, Eostre successfully getting her second plate of food. After eating they set up their tents in one of the areas sectioned off for the adventurers that were in and out of the mega dungeon. Taking a quick look around the sleeping area Dearth could see hundreds of tents lined up in neat little rows, the support staff keeping their area nice and neat. The tents for those that took rotations heading into the dungeon were not distributed as neatly, they were closer to semi-circles each based around a smaller campfire.

  The next morning Dearth heard the sounds of the camp waking up and decided to join them, there were things to do and they were still in the middle of their parties rotation. Hopping out of bed and getting dressed Dearth left his tent finding himself the first of his party up. He headed out to procure breakfast and snagged some for his entire party. It seemed one of the other parties searching the dungeon found a stash of citrus fruits inside and the support team had carted out a bunch. Little red fruits that tasted absolutely wonderful and were enriched by the dungeon, providing extra nutrients and a stamina boost to anyone that ate them. There were also sausages and some hashed root vegetables.

  Dearth brought the food back to the parties encampment and started waking everyone up, soon enough the noise and smell of food brought everyone out of their tents and the party ate and then suited up in their armor prepping for the trip back into the dungeon. Wulf went and stocked up on some of the tasty red citrus fruit as well as some other more perishable rations for the trip back in, he usually carried the parties rations, and met back up with the party in time to meet Ryder.

  “Mornin, ready to go? Good, you’ll be leading the support team in – keep them safe.” Ryder paused after those last three words to add some emphasis to the statement. “They’ll assess the tree’s and get your climbing rig setup.”

  “Thanks” Dearth replied “Haven’t lost anyone on an escort quest in days.”

  Ryder raised an eyebrow at this causing Dearth to turn his head and cough lightly. “They’ll be safe with us.” Dearth added as a follow up, his joke not having landed with the more straight laced man.

  “They’d better be.” Ryder added, “Meet up with Nell, he’ll be your point of contact for the support team following you in.”

  Dearth nodded and the party set out, outside the dungeon there was a large gathering of people. Dearth walked up to the person that seemed to be giving out orders and organizing things. “Nell?” he interrupted.

  “That’s me, you Dearth?” Nell posited.

  “Correct. How many men do you have with you?”

  “About twenty, we’ll have a few evaluate the tree’s and the rest will work on the climbing rig. Party of six, right?” Nell questioned.

  “Standard party of six, yep. Good, seems you know what your about, stay a bit back while we walk out there, should be an easy walk – the dungeon doesn’t seem to repopulate while people are inside it.” Dearth stated. “You know to keep an eye for oddities though, right? Any of your men see something strange make sure it gets called out.”

  “Yes sir, not our first time in the dungeon. Haven’t seen it myself but have heard the dungeon walls tend to get a bit wonky when its focusing on you, good chance if you aren’t on your toes someone will be eaten then.” Nell shuddered as he said this, clearly disturbed by the fact that the dungeons were living entities and sometimes tried to eat people.

  “That’s right. If any of your men see anything like that we huddle up far away from the walls and keep an eye out in all directions. Hopefully it’ll get bored of us and focus elsewhere.”

  The two teams made their last minute preparations, Nell providing that last directive to his people, after which they set back into the dungeon.