The sun had not long risen, and the rays began warming the surroundings outside. I crawled onto the surprisingly warm ground and stood up to stretch, it was surprising to see Wardi and Lucy awake first, making breakfast for everyone. Risgr?t and some sinnymun shavings with a few beautiful pink and ripe mafon berries thrown in for good mix, nice hearty breakfast for the day ahead.

  Lucy passed me a hearty bowl without saying a word, I looked at Wardi and he gave me slight head shake to say “Just leave it, don’t push it”

  “Thanks Lucy” I said politely.

  I woke the other two lazy sods or at least tried to, Rhua threw a solleret at me and I punched it at Horace who jumped up in panic.

  “Come on Horace” said Rhua pretending like she wasn’t also sleeping in, both shuffled out like the walking dead and Wardi handed them both bowls.

  “Friendly reminder just in case you forgot, don’t touch the purple embers or the boss gets an invincibility buff for an hour, just keep walking then slashing, smashing, piercing and blasting” we all nodded to Wardi’s instructions. Horace turned off the camo shell and the seals disappeared when the tent was put back in my inventory.

  The dungeon itself is a former mineshaft with wooden beams supporting the walls up. There’s a typical path that eventually leads to a spot called The Fork, which splits into two pathways containing the same general traps monster and finally a boss at the end. The only difference is the left path leads to an elevator after the boss which takes you to the top and out to the skybridge, otherwise the right path it leads straight out to Musky-Ores Village.

  We stepped up to the dungeon entrance and as per usual and the bookie Uno appeared as a feint light morphing into a brown Koanit almost triple the size of Wardi and it emanated ground elemental aura’s that dwarfed anything Lucy could produce.

  “Ye fīf! Stand at this honoured ground, the first of many, glory awaits those who triumph the Green-Top-Pass, I uno, say kneel now, may the light of her grace guide you!” As it said this, a voice rang out from the door itself -

  “The 1- star dungeon is now open, proceed immediately.”

  Darting forward and shouting aloud, last one in’s smells like Gob-head piss! Wardi and Rhua huffed at his joke. Whilst Horace ran forward, Lucy stood there expressionless and started to make me concerned, but we had to get going, duty calls.

  “Green-Top-Pass is now closed until completion.”

  Meanwhile in the monitoring room…

  “As per her graces request, the difficulty is now increased to 3 stars, all foes have been adjusted due to changes” says Phahl.

  “Technician, change the parameters of the dungeon also by reversing the rule, purple embers must be touched to prevent the invincibility buff on the boss.” Phahl continued saying.

  “Understood sir,” said the technician.

  A rippling purple enveloped the dungeon unbeknownst to the current challengers. Phahl grinned and whispered to himself “All is coming together nicely hee-hee.”

  I said to Horace “First one in smells like gob head piss” and he just laughed at my words whilst Rhua slapped my arm for being an idiot again.

  Horace had prepped beforehand and passed us several potions: five fast health regen and an attribute potion for each of us, strength for me Rhua and Wardi, agility for himself and Wisdom for Lucy.

  “We are doing this as a speedrun? these are pretty good quality potions” Rhua said to us.

  “Smash and go, this is the 6th time we’ve done this It’s almost like a second home and there’s nothing for us to gain we’re far better geared than what it can reward, and the coin purse would barely cover the return for a single potion” Wardi said getting a little bothered by the repetition of it all.

  And so, we rushed through, taking the left path as soon as it became visible. It was interesting that the dungeon smelled a little different than usual and I commented that to the others also that the embers seemed bigger than they usually did as we stepped into the path, but nobody seemed to care.

  The first traps activated, and periodically various elemental projectiles began firing out of holes placed in the walls and ceiling at high speed. Rhua activated her Phalanx ability and took the hits for us as we walked through, although we were caught by surprise as a Lil-granite monster, deep grey and turning itself into a ball, it launched itself from across the room onto a spring trap which knocked us up into the ceiling and a repel trap smashed us back down.

  “Damn” Rhua said unharmed yet a little shocked.

  “That’s A NEW ONE piped Horace”

  Lucy groaned and said “I heard they can do that but it’s really rare only a handful of groups have experienced it.” Though another one throwing itself onto a second trap we didn’t notice and the process repeating again really wound us up, though Silana cackled to herself from the back as we practiced these forced acrobatics.

  “At least there was no repel trap in the ceiling this time, I can’t wait to get slice up the little buggers” Wardi said unsheathing his rapier and activating Shadow step, ready to smash some poor dungeon critters.

  We were continuously pelted; it was like a fireworks display with all the dazzling colours but with ten times the pain if they struck. As we reached the other end, a symbol of Serilia appeared before us, on a small wooden shack in the empty section we stood in; A safety zone in the dungeon, no enemies can attack here.

  “Checkpoint reached” - A voice rang out from the symbol.

  In the next section, an open ground with numerous Lil-granites and Screechies, annoying and large bat looking things with anti-art screech abilities, fluttering about.

  “The hell is up with this dungeon today; it always goes Trap room > checkpoint > Lil-granite room > trap room 2 > Screechies. Why are there Screechies in this spot?” Wardi said, he was in no mood and took it upon himself to start committing casual dungeoncide on the local inhabitants.

  Arms, heads, and legs were sent flying as Wardi tore into the creatures ahead to pieces whilst Lucy shouted, “gravity down!” Forcing the batty sods to the ground, helping us having avoid having to jump around like lunatics or relying on her and Horace to fight primarily.

  The first screechy took a crossbow bolt to the head and it exploded letting out a piercing scream. A dungeon announcement informed us all:

  “Balance reduced by 50%, watch your step now!”

  “Is someone playing tricks on us” said Lucy barely able to stand up.

  “Maybe it’s a glitch with your systems or something, just do what you can, they can’t hurt us after all our defence is too high” I said

  “That does not mean we are free from the nuisance type attacks like that balance debuff however.” Shouted Rhua who had since switched to using her new armour from the manor, resisting the debuff much better than the rest of us.

  The Lil-granite threw themselves at Rhua, she managed to block their spontaneous tactic through her bulwark ability. They tried damn hard to break it, through headbutting, punching and kicking but unlucky for them she’s even more defensive now.

  “This would have gone a lot differently back in the day ey.” I said dealing with the Screechies, whilst Lucy prepped a room wide art

  “Akmens Lietus!” she said aloud.

  They still emitted a nasty noise as the ground art pelting down at the creatures killed them one by one, at least it wasn’t causing anymore of the debuff, I thought as I killed one then stumbled around nearly knocking into Horace who also nearly knocked into me.

  More monsters rushed out from and ran at us from holes in the walls and Wardi ruthlessly picking them off as they did.

  “There’s a lot more here than usual” he said effortlessly

  “I thought so!” said Rhua who conjured a shield in the air and slammed it into the ground, knocking the critters away that were trying to break through the Bulwark ability.

  Lucy unleashed a spell that was far stronger than any of us anticipated, and hundreds of spears of the water and ground element began erupting from her. The earth spears would heal the Lil-granites but then water spears ripped right through them straight after, it was an overwhelming slaughter watching the room be torn to shreds.

  “You have been rewarded for your mettle being assessed” echoed throughout the room.

  “HEY, my potions HAVE BEEN RESTORED” piped Horace, we checked, and it was the same for us as well, the potions we used at the start were back in our inventory.

  “I’m not gonna complain” I said, “But this is weird.” I followed up with.

  “You and me both said Wardi.

  The room filled with numerous purple embers, and the path to the next section opened.

  “Let’s assume there’s a still a trap room next but be ready for anything, let me go first just in case” said Rhua who proceeded through the next section cautiously, and we watched looking around waiting for something to happen, yet danger never came.

  From platform to platform, she jumped across until she reached the middle.

  “Come on, I don’t think there’s anything dangerous here, head to me and we can go together” she said.

  As we joined her on the platform the next three platforms ahead suddenly crumbled.

  “Well, there’s the trap, you got any rope man?” I said to Wardi who returned to the start, attached a rope, and tightened it, then used Shadow step to the end of the room and looped the rope around creating a line for us to cross on.

  “I suspect it’ll start to break apart soon, so I’ll jump across with Silana and Lucy whilst you three take it in turns crawling along, the ropes pretty weak from the sewers still so if you all go on it’s probably gonna break” he said.

  Horace went first and then Rhua. Unfortunately for us a Lil-granite appeared from the ceiling and exploded on the rope as I began crossing it. Quickly reacting to the situation, I equipped the rope javelin in my inventory and threw it into the wooden beam at the end of the hallway, and everyone gathered to pull me up.

  “Nearly fell to the abyss, thank the stars these gloves can do what they do” I said rushing with adrenaline and shaking.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “What’s wrong with this place, it’s not normal at all, it’s more like a 3- or even a 4-star dungeon, we should have already been on our way outside. grumbled Wardi.

  “IT IS A THREE STAR, look at the mission log!” piped Horace, Lucy having already been browsing her status windows, waved her hands and her face was shocked.

  “He’s right it is… but why has it changed, the dungeons never just change their rating, they’ve always been what we’ve known them as” she said becoming concerned.

  “I feel weird, feel strange” said Silana who has been relatively quiet since yesterday’s fight.

  “You ok lass?” Wardi asked placing his hand on her head and ruffling it.

  “This place, weird energy, here not accident”

  what does that mean!? I thought.

  “Now that she’s brought it up, I’m going to say it again, it’s weird as hell that nothing is like before, the monsters, traps, behaviours, and let’s not forget the angry purple things hovering about, something is way off about this dungeon, hell maybe even the boss is different now” said Rhua continuing with my way of thinking.

  *A penalty has been added for negative feedback

  as the seven will it, additional mechanic introduced.*

  “… Alright this is taking the micky.” Wardi calmly said, walking forward into the next area, we all quickly chased after him, so we didn’t get too far behind. The next area alerted us that we entered a battleground with rules.

  *Abilities are disabled in this area

  duty commenced!*

  “Someone upstairs definitely hates us right now don’t you think” Rhua said making Wardi laughed with a pain in his voice. Though he also seemed to be losing his mind a little having walked straight into one of the purple embers.

  “A member of your party has collected: Flame number 57,

  Total number of flames left 99 /100.”

  “Dritt!” He said angrily “Sorry all, this is driving me up the wall I’m gonna strangle someone at this rate.” He continued ranting.

  “Well, do it to one of those things heading our way” I said having noticed the small army of not so Lil-granites and more like regular Granites and Screechies heading towards us at full steam.

  “GIVE ME THE GOOD STUFF” shouted Horace threw out a damage up caniser for us and further aided this by throwing a can of mute gas into the floating critters.

  “Good going man” I said patting him on the back as Rhua and Wardi charged into the incoming horde.

  “You three go support this time, me and Rhua will try to split the numbers up, Silana could get hurt with this one!” Said Wardi with concern in his voice.

  There was an ever so slightly even split in the force, as they took many of the critters with them to the other side of the room, it was only me and Horace to fight this lot though. Lucy had to focus on maintaining a barrier with the odd heal now and again.

  Many of the limbs sprawled around made me think of some interesting fighting styles here and I managed to snag a Graniter leg or two to act like a pair of clubs whilst experimenting by pocketing the arms to use as throwing knives.

  I assessed one by throwing it into a line of incoming Screechies and managed to impale three in a line.

  “NICE” piped Horace. Now in turbo mode trying to manage long range attacks to help back up the other team whilst picking off any stragglers that decided to get in his airspace.

  Lil and regular Graniter’s were weak around the joints, whilst Screechies dropped dead quick if you took out the voice box. There was a small mound of bodies building up with arrows between the shoulders and knees in one pile and straight to the throat of the other.

  Meanwhile I had been trying to imitate some of those crazy Zerker types by swirling into the crowds of enemies and just twatting them as I go, which was effective given the circumstances. I should really find myself more blunt weapons I thought.

  We were taking things out faster on our side having full access to Lucy and Horace’s pre-emptive synthing. She was able to start assisting with Area of Effect type arts, so we started making quick work of all the little buggers left over. Even Silana tried imitating me towards the end having grabbed one of the legs from me and started jumping around cracking body parts

  “Careful, things could still take a turn Silana! Don’t stray too far from us.”

  I assumed she heard me talking but there was still a fight ahead. I felt a snap in my nose and suddenly my face seared in pain

  “Facking Graniter just headbutted me and broke my nose the fecking git!” I shouted in agony; It’s been a while since I had a breakage.

  “We’ll fix it later there almost all dead!” Rhua shouted.

  When I looked up, and the small little red river flew out of my nose onto the ground, I saw they were fighting their way back to us and just a handful were left to deal with. I grabbed a fresh pair of Graniter legs and threw my weight into each swing, the gloves were activating more so than ever, perhaps they favour blunt weapons I thought to myself.

  Every swing I put my back into it, determined to get some payback for my nose by smashing heads and other limbs to pieces and I was particularly impressed when I was able to knock a Graniter up in the air and with a strike that connected so perfect, it caused a spark as the stone connected against stone, and another with a major THUD using a double bat style, I took a head and torso off and the arms and legs just hovered mid-air for a second… I swear happened - honestly!

  All that was left in the room was sweat, a river of orange Screechies blood a dash of mine and a mountain of Graniter dust rising in the room.

  “Well done all” I said aloud, sweating buckets. Everyone grouped back up too, Rhua and Wardi sweating heavy but fine otherwise, Horace was happy and his usual self in the background, but Lucy was certainly feeling the fatigue, she is pushing herself with the arts lately.

  Silana just seemed overly happy that she got to do something for once, cheering with a spoil of Lil and normal sized Graniter legs of war, “YA!” she shouted raising them up into the air and jumping around.

  “Got a nice sweat off that one didn’t we” Wardi giggled “sorry for my behaviour, I’ll try not to let it get to me next time.”

  Silana tiring from her celebrations, came over then leapt into Lucy and I for a double hug, whilst Horace sat on the floor brewing up something.

  “What ya cooking up over there you” I said to him whilst trying to prise the blue haired strongwoman off me and Lucy.

  “Regeneration - SHELLS, let’s go all out for this ONE” he piped up smiling.

  “Lucy you, ok?” I said to her as she was just not herself at all, and we needed to keep the spirits up.

  “Yeah… there’s just been a lot going on lately and it’s been getting to me, I know a lot of book stuff, but I know nothing of the world, the things we’ve been facing and the sudden changes it’s overwhelming but I will keep facing it, nobody has taken me in like you all, I’d still be stuck at the Scrollitorium or something worse, an assistant to some egotistical Lùth using snob.”

  I gave her a hug and told her “You got this girl, we’re all in the same boat and you’ve saved our hides more times than I can count, not that I can count in general, but you know- OUCH” I shouted as Rhua kicked me in the back of the legs.

  “STOP MAKING JOKES YOU ARSE” Rhua said angrily yet happy at me causing Lucy to get the giggles from the event.

  “SEE I FIX EVERYTHING, ALL YOU BRING ME IS PAIN, PAIN, I TELL YOU” I quickly said being as dramatic as possible, Wardi dove in to stop Rhua from taking another swing but was interrupted before he could say anything.

  “The final stage is set.” Came an announcement.

  Each of us used a healing salve whilst Lucy also drank a Lùth nourishment broth and drank a MEGA-wisdom potion. Better have a quick read up I thought getting my note pad out to remind myself what that those things do:

  *Lùth nourishment broth - Speeds up rate of Lùth recovery 15%*...

  *The Brewmeister’s wisdom potion - Doubles wisdom and doubles current Lùth for 10 minutes.

  WARNING! causes Lùth poisoning if consumed with any other enhancing items.*

  Fair enough, you just can’t be too sure with these things I thought.

  “I’m going to set up a strong barrier art, then I’ll help you focus down the boss, the barrier should hold for the whole fight I used one of Barry’s special brews, I’m going to smash that boss…in the face!” she said amping herself up.

  “Silana, you must stay back in the safe spot, this boss uses attacks that reach all areas of the room ok, STAY INSIDE THE BARRIERS got it!?” Wardi said to her

  “Yes, sir Wardi!” she said whilst saluting at him.

  “You’re never going to escape that military stuff man” elbowing him as we walked to the next room.

  He elbowed back whilst laughing telling me to “Sod off sir.”.

  This looks familiar I thought gazing around the room. It was like the battlegrounds, only this time what awaits at the end was the rusted lift, copper in colour that connects to the skybridge and in front of it, a statue of the bookie Uno.

  Only this statue was a vivid blue and had several spikes from its head to the base of his back. Did it always have those red shoes the thought entered my mind. We stood side by side and walked forward together, stopping as the statue began whirring to life.

  “This is your final test; I permit you to challenge me sentients.”

  “Rhua, do the usual tactic, bring it to the left wall.” Wardi said.

  “Don’t have to tell me twice.” she said as she ran and began, activating her shield throw ability at the boss causing it to follow.

  “Me and him will attack its sides next, Lucy you focus on long-range attacking with Horace and before engaging, make sure Silana has stealth spells and skills on got it?” I said.

  Lucy and Horace nodded. Wardi and I both started running towards the boss I figured this time I’ll continue fighting with the Graniter limbs I saved from the last fight, targeting its legs to try and get it to topple over, we can do extra damage if we can whale on its head.

  “Out of sight!” Shouted Lucy and Horace threw an anti-musk and sneak canister at her.

  “Go Silana, hide on the other side of the lift.” said Lucy. She saluted like a good little solider and we unleashed a fair amount of damage to the boss in a short space of time.

  “Remember in the first phase it’ll focus on Rhua then a random member in its melee range will get hit by a projectile from the ceiling after every 5th attack it does!” shouted Wardi, causing Lucy and Horace to step back a few paces realising they could end up in range.

  Yet, the random attack never came, 5th attack, 10th attack…30th attack and nothing…

  “Be prepared it’s probably going to do something different this r-“

  “Ugh” & “Aash” me and Wardi shouted as it span in a circle and knocked us back, someone’s given it some Kaha recently, cheeky blighter’s never done that before!”

  My words seemed to give it energy and as we quickly depleted it’s health bar we were took by surprise as it jumped into the middle of the room and turned itself back into a statue again.

  “Your kind bring shame to these halls failing to achieve the set conditions - 1/100 purple embers collected

  New mechanic enabled.”

  “Huh…what now!?” without pause Rhua shouted. Continuing by shouting “Do not make a sound or a move at all, we don’t know what’s coming next.”

  Horace set off a shielding shell for Silana to give us some extra reassurance, a metallic coating began forming an orb of sorts around her vicinity and it fizzled out as it finished the creation.

  “The dungeon has increased to three star due to incompetence of the challengers.”

  “Right…cool since when was that a possibility.” Shouting at the statue was getting me nowhere, however.

  Before any of us could complain further, the statue clapped its hands sending out a shockwave which was quickly absorbed by Rhua’s Bulwark rattling as the shockwave blew over and past us into the walls.

  After a few seconds of nothing happening, portals began appearing, slowly, and getting bigger every second. It appeared that they showed the battle grounds that we had been in previously. Lucy began casting to see if maybe this could be interrupted, the symbols for Agni began swirling around her and she shouted “Branns?yle” A large column of fire formed and blew upwards where the statue stood but it was no good, it seemed to not have been harmed at all.

  As my weapon was largely broken, I threw it at the statue and the weapon just crumbled into dust on impact.

  “It’s going to make us re-fight everything, and then it will be targetable again…Lucy don’t heal unless we really need it.” Wardi’s words were so much calmer this time.

  “Looks like you got your composure back, let’s go for round three” Lucy said, her emboldened words certainly got us all prepped, but my mind was a little elsewhere thinking about all these strange changes and events again.

  Wardi tapped my arm, and I responded with a gasp and looked around before realising the situation at hand again. “Keep it together now!” Wardi shouted out at all of us. The wave of mobs from the first area are not particularly dangerous on their own, but that second one will create a bit of a messy fight with so many damn targets.

  “Rhua, you should do the same strategy again as soon you get the opportunity to target the boss, for the rest of us just burn the trash mobs down until we can jump back at the boss, Lucy, maybe try using acid skin instead of a shield this time, give it an enhanced cast and it should last until we can fight the big guy again.” Said Wardi

  “Are you sure? Would it not be safer to have a shield? She responded.

  “Yeah, its ok, full damage mode now, it’ll speed this clear up faster right guys?

  “YUP” piped Horace.

  The critters were much faster than previous, and they crashed into Rhua, but they need to try harder to overcome that immovable object, there must have been at least fifteen crashing into each other one after the other and she simply stood her ground and unleashed shield bash sending them flying into groups behind them, thuds and screeching rang out as they collided with each other.

  I swapped to using a great sword I pulled out of my inventory to cleave through the groups of foes trying hard to unalive us. The occasional crossbow bolt flying past me into any stragglers trying to get me at my side. Wardi took advantage of the short opening and foxtrotted out of sight and was taking advantage of the sneak attack damage by taking out the Graniters and large Screechies.

  The continuous foul looking yellow of the acid secret around us and was most concentrated around Lucy, her Area of Person spell seemed especially effective on the Lil and Regular Graniters who were dissolving before they could even step through to her Righteous Points barrier art she initially set up.

  The sounds made as the acid connected, glooping and hissing, the sounds were making me wince a little, it grated on my ears with how high frequency it was, seemingly only me being bothered by it as I glanced around the battleground at the others. Slowly but surely the numbers were falling though it seemed this was not the only thing that was in store for us as the statue began whirring to life once more.

  “The dungeon has been increased to four stars.

  dungeon adjustments have been initiated -These grounds are for fighting

  Begone with you”