Chapter 10

Neil Pov:

It's been a few days since we finished up the new room and my attention was drawn to the entrance where a group of 3 people were standing around discussing what seems like their plan for delving into our dungeon. Zion is nearly vibrating from excitement, and I have to admit I am a bit excited too. The party to delve into our dungeon was made up of a large (wooden) shield bearer who was feminine, a sword and shield wielder who was more masculine and one that didn't seem to have any real equipment who was somewhere in between the other two. With a short nod they began their delve.

Xand Pov:

With a nod we began our first dungeon dive, Shannon with her shield and Anders with his sword shield combo heading up the front and me taking the rear. I've known these two since we were little, and together we decided to form a dungeon exploration team with the name 'Sun Soaked Rose'.

We've gotten unbelievably lucky so far, managing to barely scrape together the funds for Shan's and Der's equipment, and a new dungeon getting discovered. Due to the age of the dungeons that were known before this one, dungeoneering is and was one of the hardest 'trades' to get into so not only a new dungeon being found but being the first ones to enter it is a huge boon for us!

As we descended down the stairs into the dungeon the light from the entrance faded being replaced by a softer light with no definable source. We hit the last step and we were given the sight of a grassy plain frequently dotted with trees. Cautiously we began forward walking for a short while before two wooden mannequins? Dolls? I don't know but they looked very humanoid, came out of the trees. Anders ran forward at the first of the two to leave, while Shan stayed back to protect me. The first one was felled after a few good hits from Der's blade so, I decided to take a crack at the second one, charging my mana. I wait for a moment before letting lose pretty much my only offensive spell, Bolt. I shoot a finger gun at the second enemy causing a thin bolt of lightning to shoot from my index finger to the opponent. Although it didn't seem to do much initial damage it did light a small fire on the creature so that's something! Der quickly finished off the target with a few less swings before.

For a short while we continued on like this defeating groups of 2 or 3 enemies with Ander out front and me getting a hit or two in ever so often when the sound of rustling of leaves and grass seemed to intensify from before, we got a short startle when off to our left lay what seemed to be a metallic skeletal deer with parts looking like a normal deer which is shortly ruined by the metal bones visible throughout the creature. We decided to leave them alone seeing as they weren't aggressive and continued on when Shan seemed to notice something quickly shifting herself infront of me, pulling up her shield. At that instant I hear a dull thud as something hit Shan's shield, I watch as she pushes her shield forward seeing the glint of metal flying away and the crunch of bent metal. I peaked at what had attacked us, it was a wolf very similar to the deer with metallic bones and fur showing, but it was now definitely bent the wrong way around the tree, the hit seeming to have broken part of its metal spine.

We quickly readied ourselves knowing if there was one wolf there was bound to be more and to our expectation a second wolf shortly followed the first with Der's sword getting a good knock against its front leg causing it to pause for a moment leg in the air before charging at Shan seemingly frenzied. Shan planted her shield which was being torn at by the wolf's metallic claws. I quickly tried to assist Shan, throwing out a bolt at the creature, electricity searing up and down its spine as its movement slowed to a stop before falling to the ground.

Strangely its metal parts seemed to melt into the ground leaving only the seemingly normal fur of the creature. We decided to grab the pelts and move quickly seeing as although weak enough of those things could wear us down.