Okay. Maybe I should stop him. No, it's fine. But... I guess I can at least grab some samples. Well... The loss will definitely be felt by the dwarven people. ...They'll have all the golems to compensate. And Iffir will definitely be rattled. But what if—

Harrn interrupts my internal debate before it can become even more convoluted, "You've never actually mentioned how strong you are, Belhir. Can you handle a yellow dungeon? We can certainly protect you, but who knows how many soldiers and golems are inside. That might complicate our assault."

"Bah. I can hold my own. Plus, I'll have terrain advantage," I say.

Harrn looks at me with some skepticism, while Tiff and Nilla are each nodding to themselves, the insightful gremlins that they are.

After a quick sigh, Harrn continues, "I don't think it works like that, but if you are confident, then we should be okay. If everything goes to plan, you three will be acting as support anyhow."

I chuckle. "You know what they say about plans—they rarely survive contact with the enemy."

Tiff chimes in, "Good thing you'll have me then. In and out. No contact necessary."

"They'll probably be expecting us," I say.

Harrn thinks for a moment, but then continues with renewed confidence, "Doesn't change anything. The empire has too many vulnerable targets. They can't protect every single one all the time. And they can't invest too many fighters for each. If we can impact golem production, we can finally gain the upper hand. Slowly and steadily, Emperor Iffir will fall. The empire will fall." Not if my plan works. The 'slowly and steadily' part, that is.

I turn to Harrn. "What are we waiting for then? Compared to you youngsters, I ain't got much time left."

All three shake their heads at me in disapproval. Nilla even adds an eye roll as she teleports us.

We suit up in the enchanted tactical getup again and blink to a new location.

The sun is still up. The time is a little after a regular workday ends for this specific dungeon. We are somewhere quite high. There are no trees, but the ground is covered in lush grass as far as we can see. Only occasionally do rocks break up the green carpet. White and weathered, a peculiarly satisfying contrast with the vegetation. A soft breeze rustles the grass, creating the illusion of waves. The only thing that mars the scenery is a fortress far in the distance. Dark and squat, more of a bunker.

Tiff starts removing dirt and stone from under our feet, slowly lowering us down. The ground flows around us, and eventually, swallows us whole. A small flicker of light coming from Nilla lights up the cramped pocket of air that is steadily plunging deeper and deeper.

We hit a section of rock that seems too uniform to be natural. Tiff cuts off a circular platform, and we drop into a pitch-black cavern. However, we are not in a geological formation, we are in a tunnel. The platform is affixed back in its place, the stone fusing together seamlessly. Nilla shuts off her light spell. Tiff compresses some of the wall, forming a space large enough for a few dwarves to stand in. He engages his illusion, completely concealing us inside. We wait.

There is a small rumble coming from quite the distance. I am doubtful my companions felt it.

I whisper in the darkness, "Stage one complete." A soft rustle of clothing hints at three nods.

After a few minutes, another distinct rumble starts becoming more and more evident. The three dwarves react to the vibrations, getting ready. The rumble grows louder but not enough to be uncomfortable. When something big and fast starts passing right outside Tiff's illusion, Nilla teleports us.

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Her spell somehow compensates for any inertia, the benefit of that being, we do not start tumbling around on board the supply train that is heading for the fortress.

We are in a narrow corridor in one of the train cars. On both sides are various food items. The air in the car is cooled. Tiff exhales a breath, forming some condensation in the darkness. He sits on the floor and starts concentrating. His illusion forms as a bubble, clipping through the matter around us. The parts that I can see start of as twisting, distorting the outside world. But slowly, they change, becoming opaquer by the second. By the time the train starts to slow down, I can't see anything out of the barrier. A completely white surface, alight by nothing.

The train stops fully. Tiff stands up, and the barrier shifts back into the twisting distortion. We wait again. I touch Nilla on the shoulder. We teleport. We are in a room stuffed with random assortment of weaponry and armor in various states of disrepair. Stage two complete.

I grab Harrn's arm, stopping him from opening the door. My hand is raised in a stop motion, palm to him. A minute passes, and I point to the door.

We exit the room and start walking down a hallway. When we make a few turns and go through another door, we appear in a large chamber. In the center of the space is a portal. Crackling yellow energy is clashing inside the impossibly flat surface of the dungeon gate. There are barely visible white specks meandering without purpose within the almost electrical chaos. The entirely silent gate is surrounded by unmoving golems and a few dwarves who appear utterly bored.

As we are slowly walking toward the gate, another dwarf enters the chamber and yells at the group, "Fuckin' demons again!"

"Is the chow safe!" another yells back.

The first dwarf nods, now closer to the others.

A third dwarf speaks up, "And I keep telling you it's the rebellion."

The first chastises him, "Cut it out with that bollocks. You'll get us in trouble."

The correct one attempts to justify himself, but his words are cut off. We are now inside the dungeon. Thunderous booms fill the damp air.

In front of us are five giant golems, almost twice as big as the regular variety, nearly four meters tall, each one appearing to have its singular eye trained on the portal. We begin moving, undetected. Stage three complete.

The gate in and out of the dungeon was in a relatively wide part of the plateau we are on. As we are still moving further away on foot—unwilling to risk the detection of a teleportation spell—the highland progressively narrows and gets rockier. On each side are foaming waters. Gargantuan waves are crashing against the two sides of the plateau.

We pick up our pace, now a few kilometers into the dungeon, carefully studying our surroundings and on the lookout for more golems or any remaining delvers. While we are running, I scuff my right foot back, kicking a pebble. It passes through Tiff's illusion and clatters against the ground. Few seconds after we've moved further along the seemingly endless plateau, I detect something seeping out from cracks in the ground.

Fluid and shiny, it slitters between the sharp rocks, starting to take a discernable shape next to the unnatural event that just transpired in its home. A few more start seeping out, but we are already far away.

Greater Metal Elementals. One would think they are as mindless as their lessers, but these elementals are as cunning as they are deadly. The ones that discovered the anomaly appear to be hesitantly following our path, occasionally joined by additional monsters. Their much more advanced biological—or whatever it is—programming has decided that we are a bigger threat than they can currently handle. The hunting party will attempt to stalk us and attack only when they've determined they have an edge.

Terrifying they may be, this variant of metal elemental is special. Their cores are comprised of a metal found only in dungeons. The aptly named—charsteel. Khirfin's mysterious black anvil—the one my sensors found particularly funny—and most parts of the empire's golems are made out of either pure charsteel or one of its many alloys. While not widely used around the world due to its rarity, and as its normal durability and hardness are nothing outstanding, this metal is one of the most premium materials for enchanters and golem engineers. Charsteel has the property of handling a larger number of layered enchantments compared to any other medium. So, while a charsteel sword can never be stronger than a conventional steel one, it can cut ninety percent as good, and on top of that, throw fireballs around, and probably cook you a meal while you are resting after a delve. All this combined, it's no surprise how important this type of dungeon is to the empire.

The three dwarves stop. We are almost at the end. Time to face my first B-grade boss.

Well... I wouldn't exactly say that I'll be facing my first B-grade boss directly. Does hyping up Harrn count? I decide that it does.

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