章節 14: Down in the Dungeon Pt. 8 The Empty Floor

The heroes approached the doors to Level 4, but they immediately noticed a problem.

There was no floor boss in sight.

Markus turned to the others and warned them to stay alert.

"Everyone be on your toes. So far, every time we get to the end of the dungeon there has been some kind of crazy strong monster that has been very difficult to deal with."

"And Ian, no more fucking heroics. We're a team so we do this as a team."

"Alright, no more heroics."

The group began to make their way towards the door with caution because they were unsure if this was a trap and something was gonna drop down on them or if they were really just that lucky.

It turned out to be the former as a giant mass of vines and grass just dropped from the ceiling. It looked like the stuff of nightmares as it moved and convulsed in an oddly manner. It was this horrendous looking thing that screeched and cried out but had no bearing on what it was doing or its purpose for existing.

The only evident feature about this thing is that it was dangerous. It went from a mound to standing up and being much larger than any of the heroes. When it stood up, several bits and pieces of what looked like those archers also fell off the top of the creature's body.

The guys had the same dreadful look on their face as they realized what this horror was for this had haunted their nightmares for a month.

"It's a fucking shambler," said Markus with the most scared look of the three.

[A/N Shambler/Shambling mound: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiLjaXv_fHkAhVdGjQIHdWACvMQjRx6BAgBEAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dandwiki.com%2Fwiki%2FShambling_Mound_(5e_Race)&psig=AOvVaw3b-Zo7PjjmQSIPuTbAcV9D&ust=1569707171070083]

"We're so fucking dead man," said Derek as he had given up hope.

"Welp, screw you guys I'm going home," said Ian as he turned around began to walk back towards the stairs that led up.

Zoe was really annoyed at the fact that these guys were acting so brave with the archers and now they were being scared little chicken shits.

"Hey, assholes. Mind on cluing us in on why this thing makes you guys piss yourselves. This thing looks like it can be taken down pretty easily."

Ian turned around and scoffed at Zoe, "See that's what you would think, but this thing is insanely bullshit. We spent three 5-hour sessions of D&D fighting 4 of those things because they are immune to lighting and resistant to cold and fire damage. It was hell and it cost us a lot of in-game and real time that we won't ever get back."

"Oh... sorry."

"It's ok Zoe, I'm sorry I reacted the way I did. It's just that Luke is a complete asshole and wanted to give us a "challenge" since we cheesed our way through his campaign."

[A/N: D&D is Dungeons and Dragons, a very popular TTRPG that was created by Gary Gygax (RIP).]

Alice looked at the boys and puffed out her chest as she tried to rally them together, "Well, you guys have us with you and we need to get through that thing to get to the next floor so it's time to put up or shut up."

The guys looked at Alice with a bit of shock on their faces as they didn't expect Alice to say something like that.

Before anyone else could get a word out, the shambler began to move towards the group and swung the tentacle like vines at Derek and Markus. Both of them were sent flying backwards and hit the ground hard.

Ian brought out his shield and began to move into a defensive position trying to buy the girls enough time to play their support roles.

Zoe moved like lightning around Ian and managed to get close to the shambler dealing some damage to it. She circled around it at a distance while Rose healed Markus and Derek and Alice began shooting out fire bolts against the creature.

"Rose, I need you to hurry. Zoe and Alice need Markus and Derek to take aggro, so they don't get targeted by the shambler."

"I've almost got them back on their feet. Markus took a bit more damage because he doesn't have anything to block with anymore."

Ian was trying to hold out against the shambler, but it was getting difficult with the constant attacks against him and lack of damage output.

Rogues were good for damage output, but the shambler was just a ridiculous health sponge that would take hit after hit.

Luckily, Rose got Markus back up on his feet and Derek shortly after, so they began to whale on the shambler. The shambler was taking more damage and it seemed to be slowing down more. The big change in the fight came when Markus and Derek backed off the shambler to catch their breaths and Zoe continued to attack with flurry of attacks.

The shambler wasn't smart enough to attack strategically, but it was smart enough to attack whatever was targeting it. It spun around and slam its large vines into Zoe with all of its remaining strength. The heroes watched as Zoe was slammed by the large vines and then said vines began to wrap around her body and engulf her.

"Zoooooooeeeeeeeee!!!!"

Ian yelled out for her as she began to disappear in the entangling vines.

'Rahska, help her.'

'Yes master.'

With that simple command, the little wolf pup ran to the enormous plant monster and began to tear and rip at the vines in a mad scramble to get Zoe free. As Rahska clawed deeper into the vines, Zoe began to feel some air enter her lungs and began to squirm in the vines. She managed to tighten her grip on her daggers and started to shred the shambler like she was trying to make a salad.

With the help of Rahska, Zoe was able to break free from the shambler and rolled to the ground.

Markus took the lead and had Zoe get back into cover behind Ian. She was too beaten and out of breath to argue so she did as Markus said.

"Hey guys, hold back. I just thought of something. Let me try it out."

Ian began to channel his only skill to see if he could communicate with the shambler.

'Voice of the Forest'

'Error'

'The skill level is too low to be able to converse with target creature.'

"Damn, it didn't work."

"What now Ian?"

"We fucking finish it."

Ian kept up protecting the girls while Markus and Derek dealt as much damage as they could. Then one of Alice's fire bolts hit the shambler and it fell, finally being defeated.

Then everyone heard that wondrous and magical noise.

*Ding*

Ian

Level: 2 Exp: 2190/2500

Markus

Level: 2 Exp: 1090/2500

Rose

Level: 2 Exp:1130/2500

Alice

Level: 2 Exp: 1000/2500

Derek

Level: 2 Exp: 1170/2500

Zoe

Level: 2 Exp: 1110/2500

"We did it, we're finally level 2. Hopefully we get some new skills or something for getting to this stage."

[A/N: skills and abilities to come.]

Ian looked at the others and saw the happiness that they had to have made it to the next level.

'They deserve it, they have really worked hard to get here.'

Markus pulled everyone's attention back to getting on to the next floor.

"We'll rest up and take some time to clean up then we'll head down to the next floor for whatever great hell this dungeon has next. The person who created this dungeon is some kind of sadistic asshole who enjoys watching us trudge through all of these monsters to gain some experience."

[A/N: well fuck you too Markus.]

After a long and well-deserved rest, the group went on their way to the next floor. They had to cut a lot of vines off of the door, but when they were done, they were able to push the door open to the next floor.

Something was off with this floor, there was only a flat surface and some stairs that looked like they lead right to the last floor.

"I don't like this; the floor shouldn't be this empty. Every time something is like this, someone always gets caught up in some elaborate trap or challenge." (Ian)

"Well, what should we do?" (Markus)

"We can't go back to the 3rd level because of the archers and we don't know if this is a trap." (Alice)

"We stay here and make camp. Everyone will rest up and we take shifts keeping watch." (Ian)

The group made camp on the floor and decided that they would investigate it later. Their rests were to gather energy, but now they would eat, sleep, and think. Rahska was very excited about spending time with his master as his master was kind to him. Ian took first watch and stayed up for quite some time. He decided to let the others sleep while he thought about the meaning behind this floor.