Chapter 318 — First Descent
The air inside the dungeon was damp and heavy with mana, carrying that same metallic tang Kael had tasted during the raid. This time, however, he was not among the fighters. From the top of the carved stair, Kael and several council members watched as the first gather team prepared to descend.
Two dozen militia members stood ready—half armed with steel and shields, the other half burdened with packs, tools, and bundles of rope. Their armor wasn't uniform, but each piece had been scrubbed and reinforced after weeks of training. They looked nervous, but their stances were firm.
Varik strode to the front, his voice cutting through the torchlit gloom. "Remember what we drilled. Fighters shield the gatherers. Gatherers don't wander. Everyone watches their partner. If you fall, you get back up or the man beside you hauls you up. No one dies for ore."
A chorus of voices answered, rough and raw but unified:
"NO ONE DIES FOR ORE!"
Rogan grunted his approval from Kael's side. "They'll make mistakes. But they'll learn."
The descent into the first floor was quiet. The wide cavern was just as Kael's raiding party had left it—jagged stone walls glittering faintly with veins of iron and copper, mushrooms the size of shields glowing pale green, and the distant sound of skittering claws.
The first monster appeared quickly. A hulking, four-legged beast with a carapace of black chitin burst from a crevice, mandibles snapping. The front line raised shields as Varik barked, "Hold!"
The impact shook the formation, but the militia didn't break. Two spearmen thrust low, pinning the beast's legs, while a swordsman drove his blade into its exposed joint. The creature screeched, staggered, and collapsed.
"Down!" Varik shouted, stepping in to finish it with a clean thrust.
The gatherers moved in as soon as the danger was gone, chisels and hammers striking the glowing mushrooms. Their cuts were precise, taking the stalks without damaging the caps. One young woman carefully stowed them into a lined satchel, her hands trembling.
"Good work," muttered another. "That's one crate of glowcaps already."
Hours passed in cycles of combat and harvest. The team carved glowing fungi, hacked crystals free from stone, and dug iron from shallow veins while the fighters held back swarms of dungeon rats and more carapace beasts.
The rhythm began to set in: shield wall, strike, harvest, move.
But the dungeon tested them.
On the fourth skirmish, three creatures attacked at once—spined hounds that moved faster than any militia recruit could track. One broke past the line, lunging for a gatherer.
A young fighter, barely out of training, tackled the beast head-on. Its jaws clamped down on his arm, but he held it, gritting his teeth as others rushed in. Together, they cut the hound down, dragging their comrade back bleeding but alive.
When he tried to apologize, Varik bellowed over him: "You stood your ground. That's what matters. We patch you up and move again."
And they did.
By the time the team returned to the Hollow, packs were heavy with ore, crystal, and fungi. Exhaustion weighed on every step, but their faces carried a fierce pride.
Kael was waiting at the dungeon's entrance when they emerged. He watched as the militia laid down their loads, healers rushing in to tend the wounded. A few limped, one had to be carried, but none were dead.
Kael's voice carried over the bustle:
"You fought. You bled. You came back. And you brought the Hollow its first harvest."
The tired cheers that followed were small but genuine, carrying the weight of something new: hope.
Rogan's scarred face cracked into a rare grin. "They'll be ready for floor two soon enough."
Kael didn't answer at once. His eyes drifted to the dungeon's dark maw behind them, the unseen depths that still pulsed with mana.
"They will," he finally said, though his voice was heavy. "But the deeper we go, the stronger it gets. The dungeon is watching us."
And as the first crates of resources were hauled into the Hollow, Kael felt the weight of both victory and warning settle over his shoulders.