They fell.
Not endlessly—mercifully not—but long enough for panic to bloom before impact stole the breath from their lungs.
Stone rushed up to meet them. Alaric twisted midair, lightning flaring instinctively as he adjusted their descent. Tani clung to his shoulder, his small claws digging lightly into the armor, tail whipping as he balanced instinctively.
They struck a lower ledge hard, bodies skidding across grit and shattered rock. The impact rattled bone and teeth, the sound swallowed instantly by the cavern below.
For a heartbeat, there was only ringing silence.
Dust hung thick in the air, turning the faint light into a choking haze.
"—Everyone?" Adam rasped, forcing himself upright. Blood ran in a thin line from his temple, but his grip on Melina's arm never loosened.
"I'm—" Victoria coughed, rolling onto her back. "I'm alive. I'm alive!!"
Melina sat up slowly, shaking, staff clenched in white-knuckled hands. "I think… I think so."
Alaric was already standing.
His spear hummed softly, blue lightning crawling along its edge like a restrained storm. Tani perched on his shoulder, tail flicking nervously, eyes scanning the shadows.
He scanned the darkness, senses stretched taut.
Above them, the ceiling groaned.
Then settled.
The way back was gone.
The tunnel they'd fallen from had sealed itself under tons of collapsed stone, the dungeon already correcting, already adapting.
Adam swore under his breath. "We're cut off."
Tani crawled to his side, Adam petted him before letting him climb up to his shoulder.
Melina stood up, shaking. "We're...deeper than planned."
"Where even are we?" Alaric asked.
"Let's see..." Melina muttered. Her staff started to glow, mana formed at the tip, solidifying.
She held her staff high, and the misty flow of mana formed into a luminous white flame.
"Wow..." Victoria said in awe. Adam didn't say anything, his eyes simply turned away, bitter memories rising at the tip of his fingers.
"That's useful," Alaric muttered, his gaze falling to Adam for a while and softening before he turned and looked at the end of the cavern they were in. Tani chirping softly in agreement as he flitted from Adam's shoulder to his forearm.
He looked back at Melina.
"Lead the way."
Melina swallowed, nodded, and stepped forward.
The light from her staff pushed back the darkness slowly, reluctantly, like it didn't quite want to leave. The cavern they stood in opened wider the farther they went, the walls smoothing out before warping again into strange, organic curves.
Their footsteps echoed dully against stone softened by time.
"This still feels… normal," Victoria whispered after a minute. "Which somehow makes it worse, I think."
Melina nodded. "Transitional layer," she said, voice steadier now that she had something academic to cling to. "The dungeon eases intruders down. Pressure, mana density, ambient hostility—it increases gradually."
Adam frowned. "That's comforting in a dishonest way."
They rounded a bend.
The cavern started to dip. The ground sloped downward into a vast inner hollow. Melina's light stretched out and was swallowed by distance, illuminating only fragments at a time. She strengthened the light.
Tani's instincts saved them more than once—once hissing sharply just before a stalagmite cracked loose overhead.
Finally, she stopped after what felt like almost an hour.
They all looked at what was in front of them. A staircase. And the end of the staircase, twilight beamed from above.
The staircase rose out of the cavern like a contradiction.
It was wide, broad enough that 4 men could walk abreast, its steps worn smooth by something that had never been human. The stone was darker than the surrounding rock, veined faintly with the same glowing lines they had seen deeper below, though here the light was muted, almost dormant.
Victoria let out a low whistle. "Well...is that normal?"
Melina stared, awe creeping in.
"Maybe," she said. "Maybe not. Dungeons have very complicated pathways and tunnel systems. I guess this is a...vertical transition."
Adam squinted. "So we are going up?"
"Yes," Melina replied. "But not out of here."
They climbed.
The staircase spiraled gently, walls gradually giving way to open arches. With every step, the air changed. It grew cooler, cleaner, tinged with the scent of moss and something faintly sweet. The oppressive weight of the dungeon eased—not gone, but pulled back, watching from a distance.
Finally, the stairs ended.
They emerged onto a wide platform of ancient stone.
A forest stretched as far as the eye could see.
Towering trees with century-old bark rose into the sky, their canopies woven together so tightly that the light filtered through in shifting patterns. Strange flowers bloomed on the vines that had overtaken the platform.
The scenery was beautiful.
Unsettlingly so.
"This…" Victoria breathed. "This is inside the dungeon?"
Melina stepped forward, eyes shining despite everything. "Yes. And this—this is the goldmine."
She turned to them, excitement cutting through her exhaustion. "Inner ecosystems like this are incredibly rare! The mana density alone, every plant here is a catalyst. Apothecaries die for this stuff!"
Adam tilted his head as he brushed his hand against one of those strange flowers.
"So we can earn money here?"
"Yes," she said. "But, we need to be careful. Because...the core of the dungeon is also probably here. And the core attracts the strongest monster."
Victoria gazed deeper and further into the forest, "So we kill it?"
"No!" Melina snapped back. "Absolutely not! We should only harvest at the edges! Safety fir—!"
A screech tore through the air. Sharp. Monstrous, it echoed through the canopy.
Wings spread wide, feathers like white steel. The head of an eagle crowned its body, eyes burning with predatory intelligence. Its torso was massive, leonine, muscles coiling beneath hide, and trailing behind it was a snake in place of its tail.
His talons extended, long and dagger-like, aimed straight for them.
Victoria swore. Adam reached for his weapon. Tani hissed and bristled, puffing himself up like a tiny guardian, tail lashing as he prepared to leap. Lightning surged violently around Alaric as he drew back his spear.
"WAIT!"
Melina threw herself in front of him.
She planted her staff, mana surging so hard the air rippled. Fear flashed across her face for only a fraction of a second before resolve took over.
The air around the staff flared with heat.
A roaring fireball tore from its tip, compressing mid-flight before detonating against the creature's chest in a violent explosion.
The monster shrieked as it was blasted backward. It vanished with a thunderous crack.
Melina stood there, chest heaving, staff trembling in her hands.
"...S-sorry," she said, for no reason. She had just learned to apologize over the years in the city, for things she hadn't done.
Alaric smirked, "Why?"
"...What? What?"
Another one of those creatures screeched. It flew towards Alaric, only a few meters away. Before Melina could fire her magic, Alaric's spear moved.
Just when it came into range, his head slipped from his shoulders. The body fell below and the head dropped to Melina's feet.
A Kobold, something between a dog and a goblin with red skin and yellow eyes, wielded a club and climbed the tower they were on.
Victoria immediately reacted, unsheathing her sword. With a silver glint, the club and the hand of the Kobold had been cut away.
"KEH—!" The monster growled in shock at the loss of his limb. Not even half a second later, his head descended down to the forest floor. Many more Kobolds followed, trying to climb the tower, they all fell dead by her sword.
"I'm dropping down," she said.
"What?! No, wai—!"
Victoria heard her warning, but jumped towards a neighboring tree and dropped down anyway.
Sounds of screaming came from below. The wet sound of blood spilling echoed, at least 15 Kobolds had been killed by the edge of Victoria's blade.
A shadow crawled behind Melina.
Vines slithered soundlessly across the stone, dark green and slick, pulsing faintly as if breathing. From the mass, a stalk rose, split apart—and opened into a mouth.
Fang-lined petals peeled back, dripping with clear, viscous sap that hissed faintly where it touched stone. Another head unfurled beside it. Then another. Each mouth flexed, tasting the air.
Melina felt him before she saw him.
Her breath hitched. She turned—
Adam had already begun moving.
His sword left its sheath. The first head never reached Melina. Adam stepped in, twisted his wrist, and cut diagonally upward.
At the same moment, Tani lunged from Adam's shoulder, teeth bared and claws extended. The small, wiry beast darted between the vine heads, sinking his fangs into one as he tried to strike Adam. Tani tore the head free, tossing him aside.
The plant's head came apart like wet parchment. Sap sprayed like blood.
Two more heads burst from the vine mass, splitting open mid-lunge, fangs snapping where his throat had been a heartbeat earlier.
"Adam—!" Alaric shouted.
Adam stepped forward.
His blade blurred. Both heads were severed in rapid succession, collapsing at his feet. Tani crouched low, tail coiled like a spring, eyes glowing faintly as he hissed at the writhing mass of vines, ready to leap at any threat.
The main body shrieked, a wet, organic sound that vibrated through the stone and into their bones.
Adam exhaled sharply.
Then he jumped.
He leapt from the platform onto a neighboring tree branch, boots biting into bark as thick vines exploded upward to meet him. Tani dashed along Adam's back, tail lashing and claws raking through the advancing vines, keeping them off Adam's legs.
"What is he doing?!"
"I don't know," he said, watching Tani slice through several tendrils with vicious bites. "Seems like they are fighting."
The plant wasn't rooted to one place—it flowed, spreading through the forest floor and climbing after him, tendrils ripping free from soil and stone alike.
Adam landed, pivoted, and drove his sword down.
The blade bit deep into the vine's body.
It whipped around him, snapping branches, tearing bark loose. One lashed across his arm.
Adam gritted his teeth and hacked it away without slowing.
"Persistent," he muttered.
A hesitant smile escaped from Alaric, "All that training in the two months....worked, huh?"
Adam cut away the vines, making his way to the bottom the tree. Tani leapt ahead of him, raking through smaller tendrils.
Together, they tore through the vine monster and finally, destroyed its bulging core.
He stood among the ruined vines, chest rising and falling, sword dripping sap instead of blood. He wiped the blade against the bark, sheathed it, and looked up at Melina.
"You owe me," he said before walking away. He met with a bloodied-up Victoria, smiling like it was her birthday.
Alaric watched from above, his gaze shifted to a fearful and concerned Melina.
"Scared?" He asked.
"....Yes."
"Don't be," he said. "We aren't scary people, right?"
Melina glanced at the head of a Cockatrice on the platform. The Kobold bodies and the dead Vine Rangler came to her mind, so did the people who slayed them.
Alaric offered her a hand. "Let's go down."
She hesitated, then took his hand.