Nurmela was leading an expedition this time. Her main mission was scouting the ninth floor. Reaching it wasn’t an easy task. The cat golems were guarding the path to the stairs vigilantly. They encountered seven of them before they saw the end of the road.
“Thanks, the gods, that was the last one.” Nurmela slumped on the steps. Others followed her.
“Dungeon Mistress could go easy on us for the next floor,” Nonisa said.
“But you love those cats,” Jilax said.
“I do, and I still want one for myself. But fighting them is a nightmare.”
“I think I like them too. Your blood burns hot while fighting them.” Crall said, and the rest of the adventurers shook their heads.
“Ok. Everyone, check your armour and weapon. Also, I need to know how we stand with healing potions and the rest of the stuff.” Nurmela said. “We will see how far we can go.”
Soon, they were standing in a small clearing around the exit, but big enough for a camp.
“Well, forest again,” Nurmella said. “We had wolves and cats. What else can we find in the woods?”
“A lot of things.” Jilax shrugged.
“I’m smelling something nice,” Thora said.
“Nice like what?” Crall asked.
“I think there are a lot of herbs in this wood. It’s a similar smell to the herbalist workshop.”
“The herbs are expensive, and easy to collect.” Crall smiled. “Now we only need to find what else is happening there.”
“Shields up. Weapons ready. Let’s find out.” Nurmela ordered.
Barely had they entered the woods when something from the branches was thrown in their direction.
“Up there! They are hiding in the branches. Mages, shoot them down! We will protect you.” Nurmela shouted. Nonisa, Hemir, and Hranfast immediately started shooting ice shards at golems.
“Stood in one place you little shit!” Nonisa shouted. The monkey instead threw something at her. It landed on Balk’s shield with a splat.
“Oh shit. They throw rotten fruits too.” He grumbled. “Kill them faster.”
“Easier said than done,” Hranfast answered, dodging another fruit.
After some time, all three golems were lying on the ground, destroyed.
“Those golems look strange,” Iason observed.
“Yeah. Just like people who forget an important part of being people.” Healer Maedia said.
Naomi, while creating those golems, forgot one detail about the history of this world. The gods taught the first elves, and later other races, everything an advanced civilization needed. There wasn’t an epoch of tribes that slowly and arduously learned how to make the first stone tools, hunt animals, and make shelters. From the very beginning, they had access to everything needed to build cities, farms, and more. And because of it, the idea of tribes, living without all of that, was alien to them.
“I bet it’s again something crazy from the Dungeon Mistress world.” Nurmela shrugged. “Healers, and anyone who knows anything about herbs, look around, and take anything useful.“ She added.
Since the first fight wasn't difficult, and now they knew they had to look for golems in the trees, they decided to move forward. The second skirmish was an easier one because they faced two golems this time. However, when they were starting to pick herbs, something covered the sun.
“What is that?” Iason gasped. Above them, slowly, was moving something that no one had ever seen before. It looked like a teardrop, but upside down, and as big as a small house, made from fragments of fabric. Underneath hangs a basket with one monkey inside, which started throwing rotten fruit at them.
“It’s a Dungeon Mistress prank,” Nurmella answered, raising her shield above her head. “Nonisa or anyone. Shoot this monkey down.”
“On it,” Sorcerress answered and hurled a few simple ice shards towards whatever that was. With the help of the other mages, the fabric was torn apart, and the monkey fell. However, simultaneously, the fabric burst into flames.
Adventurers watched in horror as the trees caught fire.
“Run!” Nurmella shouted.
When they reached the surface, all were covered in soot and smelled of smoke.
“Once again, volcano?” Paoli asked when they entered the guild.
“No, it was a trap,” Nurmella answered. “Dungeon Mistress made a flying trap. When you shoot it down, it explodes and causes a forest fire.”
“Then why did you shoot it down?”
“We didn’t know it would explode, and in the basket was a monkey throwing rotten fruits at us.”
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Maybe start from the beginning,” Lucius interjected. “You don’t make sense right now.”
Naomi, with growing concern, observed interactions between sun elves and the adventurers. Usually, both sides avoid each other. However, it wasn’t always possible, especially on the first four floors. Adventurers always stepped back to make room for elven warriors without saying a word. But in the tavern and outside the dungeon, Naomi sees faces that are either angered or resigned. Adventurers were slowly losing hope. And the guards were another issue. Paladins were respectful but didn’t step aside. They were fully dedicated to guarding the dungeon, and even sun elves couldn’t change that. However, it creates serious tension between the two parties. And don't even try to negotiate a joint patrol schedule.
“I have had enough of that!” On the sixth day, Naomi shouted.
She appeared on the fifth floor and approached the tent where sun elf priests tend wounded elven warriors.
“You! Gather all next to the southern tower.” She ordered a priest who was waiting for the next wounded. He opened his mouth to say something, but Naomi didn’t wait. “Now!” She shouted, shocking him and attracting the attention of other elves. Naomi didn’t wait and barged into the tavern.
“Everyone, drop everything and gather all next to the southern tower.” She ordered the gathered adventurers.
“Dungeon Mistress…” Lisusa tries to ask.
“Move now.” Naomi interrupted Lisusa.
It took half an hour to gather all, and that was an enormous gathering, a few hundred people, almost one thousand. Only a few were absent because they were on guard or exploring the floors. On the right side were gathered sun elves, and on the other, adventurers and paladins. At the front stands Lady Itylara, all the grand priests and commanders.
Naomi invoked a sound-amplifying spell and started speaking.
“I’m disappointed and angry with all of you. I was expecting difficulties in organizing everything. One hundred people appearing pose a logistical headache. But over the last few days, I haven't seen anyone trying to organize anything. Sun elves. I know that the desert is your kingdom and home. You are either nobles or have noble descent and are rightly proud of your combat skills. I get it. But for the gods' sake. Why are you acting like entitled brats? The adventurers. Where is your: I don’t give a shit attitude? I know there is a social gap between you and the sun elves, and you try to act properly. But right now, you are just a bunch of cowards running away. And finally, paladins. You are not only my guardians, but most importantly, the guardians of law and order. And right now you are lazing around. All this shit is not my problem. I have orders to stand and look for a cultist.” Naomi takes a breath. All gathered were standing at attention. They don’t expect anything like that. Dungeon Mistress was always smiling, and even when she witnessed disputes between adventurers, she tried to help them talk out their grievances. But now she was angry at all of them. And the worst part was, she was right.
“Ok, Commander Alasse. If I correctly understand, you are responsible for organizing guards.” Nomi asked a female sun elf warrior.
“Yes, Dungeon Mistress.” She deeply bowed, afraid of what would come next.
“Then you and General Serator will discuss the proper schedule for guards. I don't care if you divide the walls in half or the time the guards spend on shifts. I didn’t see you acting like professionals, but now you would. While my dungeon is relatively safe, people outside my walls aren’t. I didn’t want to hear that someone was harmed because guards weren’t doing their job.”
“Yes, Dungeon Mistress.” Both mentioned bowed.
“And for adventurers. Lady Itylara and Guild Master Lucius, you will be responsible for scheduling expeditions. I know that it will be hard to squeeze so many people in my dungeon, but try to find a way. Regrettably, my next floor will be a safe one, and the eleventh one will be built in the next two months or so. I promise that from now on, I will try to build floors as big as possible, to accommodate as many adventurers as possible. However, until now, I wanted to see proper cooperation between sun elves and adventurers. You all have five days to do that. I hope to see improvements in everyone's behavior. If not, I will find someone else to do your job.” Naomi said and, without a word, returned to her core floor.
When she appeared in her core room, she slumped on the floor.
“What have I done!” She curled up on the floor when all anger and adrenaline faded away.
“Nice show, sister!” Tabitha appeared next to her, munching on some fruit.
“Please, goddess, tell me it's your doing,” Naomi begged.
“I’m innocent this time. It’s all you.” The goddess laughed.
“But it wasn’t me. I’m scared of crowds. And I shouted at them.”
“To be exact, it was your dungeon, my dear.” In the core room, the Lady appeared. “You and the dungeon are built from mana, and mana is sensitive to emotions. Because people in your dungeon had negative feelings, it affects you.”
“I hope they don’t go away. I liked them. For the first time in my life, there were people whom I could talk to and laugh with.”
“They are all right, so they should stay,” Tabitha assured her.
“I should go and apologize. They are most likely scared.”
“Not yet, my dear. Even if emotions dictated your words, they carried our teachings. They need to remember them and start acting accordingly.”
“What kind of teachings?”
“That if you want to have real fun, you need different people. Like with ale. You need water, grain, and a lot of other things.” Tabitha explained.
“Or to put it simply, we encourage cooperation and seeing beyond differences.” The Lady smiled.
“Oh, this one. Yes, different people excel in different areas, and because of that, they need each other. I hope they will remember that.”
Outside the dungeon in the hastily erected tent, all high priests, Lady Itylara, and the adventurers' guild master were gathered. Even Jolana was invited as an observer and a consultant representing merchants.
“Commander Alasse. I propose discussing the proposition of Dungeon Mistress about splitting our responsibilities, and see if they could work.” General Serator said to the elven warrior. He hoped they would agree on something. If not, he would need to march to the north to redeem his wrongdoing. He could bear his shame, but the lack of any agreement would doom all the paladins and priests along with him.
“Agree.” She answered. Her voice wasn’t confident like usual. Alasse wasn’t scared of her disgrace. If it happened, she would leave the desert and try to kill as many demon summoners as she could. She was afraid of how her fall would affect the future of the sun elves.
“My lady.” Lucius bowed to the elven noble lady. “I have with me detailed maps and schedules of the adventurers' expedition to each floor. I propose to go through every floor and see how many people could be on each one without disturbing one another.”
“Guild master. While those notes could be useful, I should mention that we arrived here recently and don’t have such detailed notes to compare. Your side had a clear advantage.”
“True, my lady. However, we are talking about the dungeon. And things like reset after conquering a room make both sides equal.”
“But then we will make everything very slow if we wait for one another. We need to enter the dungeon even in the middle of the night, to have a reasonable timetable.”
“I have some propositions,” Lucius answered.
“Then let’s talk.” The Lady answered.
