"I can't sense anything anymore," Jul whispered.

The walls of dark blue-gray that suffocated them had grown impenetrable, and not even the shadows of the trees managed to loom through anymore, not unless they were directly next to them, in the little, ragged circle around them in which it was still possible to see.

Nar's [Sight] had never been able to penetrate through the fog, and his [Hearing] had been rendered useless shortly after leaving the empty Wolves' Den, so the fact that Jul's senses had lasted this long was a testament to just how good her sense attributes were.

"[Instinct] still working?" Gad asked her.

"I think so, but there hasn't been anything from it since the snakes," Jul replied.

"We'll all see and hear it at the same time, then," Gad said.

"What's it?" Tuk whispered, scanning the wall of fog behind them.

"Guess we'll find out," Mul muttered.

There was almost no point in keeping their voices low. The fog smothered every sound, blanketing everything in absolute, dead and damp silence, to the point that Nar didn't even hear his own footsteps or breathing now, and he had stopped being careful with how he stepped for a solid half an hour.

"We should be close to the goblin camp anyways," Kur said. "Let's just see if we can reach it."

Thankfully, their compasses still worked, as without them, it would've been impossible to navigate through the fog.

And thankfully, Kur took an elective in cartography, too, Nar thought, scanning the blankness around him. Their party leader had sought the courses that would help prepare him for every eventuality, and so far, he seemed to have made all the right choices.

Not even two minutes later, Gad raised her hand and they stopped around her, weapons at the ready, armor activation orders primed in their minds.

Directly in front of her, almost within her actual arm's reach, rose a crooked wooden palisade. It had to be about twice her towering height, and it showed visible cracks and broken sections on the small bit of it that was visible.

Nar strained his [Hearing], but even standing right besides the Goblin Camp, he heard nothing at all.

There's supposed to be over fifty of them in there, Nar thought, as they formed a semi-circle around Gad and the wooden obstacle. I should be able to hear something, no?

Kur pointed at his ear then at Jul, but the four-armed fighter shook her head, and formed a double X with her arms.

So, she can't hear anything either, uh? Nar thought, looking up at the wall as Jul creeped towards the barrier in their path, and peered through a gap in it.

She gasped almost immediately, and pulled back from the wall.

"What?" Kur whispered.

"Dead bodies," Jul said. "Inside."

"Goblins?"

"Looks like it."

"We should find a way inside," Gad said.

"What?" Tuk asked. "I thought we were going to avoid them!"

"There's nothing left to avoid," Gad said. "The fog is dense, but not dense enough to mask the sounds of fifty goblins."

"And goblins aren't known for being quiet either," Kur mused. "Alright, let's go inside. We might as well check it out and see if we can find anything out."

Tuk sighed and Mul patted his leg. "Don't worry. I'll protect you."

The ring tosser stared at the brawler in disbelief. "Wait… What?"

And even Nar, who had observed the exchange, was unsure whether the brawler had meant to be sincere, or whether he was just messing around with Tuk.

They circled around the palisade, and when Nar was just starting to wonder if they had chosen the longer way, a gate appeared from the mist, though it was easier to describe it as a hole or a gap, rather than anything fancier.

Gad checked with Kur, who checked in with everyone else, and then gave her a nod. Armors flared again, and they stepped into the quiet camp.

Inside the walls, the fog wasn't as dense, even if the air hung heavier over their shoulders.

And it's even colder, Nar thought, noticing the chill that spread through his limbs.

Constructions of wood, branches and leaves poked in and out of the fog, and most of them looked like nothing more than two slanted wooden sides leaning against each other, barely reaching Nar's chest. But in the distance, he picked up the shadow of a taller construction, probably as tall as the palisade itself. He was about to mention it to the others, in case their lower [Sight]s had missed it, when something gleamed and caught his eyes.

"Is that… Ice?" Nar asked, nudging Rel who walked besides him.

"Ice?" Rel whispered.

He pointed towards one of the little huts. Its roof was destroyed by a jagged wound, and sharp splinters mixed in with shiny, pointy edges that gleamed faintly in the low light of day that still managed to reach them through the dense canopy overhead and the fog.

"I think that's what it's supposed to look like," Nar said. "There's a guy in the Blades Hall with an ice affinity, and his sword looks like that… Plus, it's gone a lot colder."

"What in the Pile? I think you're right!" Rel whispered. "Kur. Kur!"

"What?"

"We think there's ice over there," she said.

"Ice?" Kur asked. "What do you mean ice?"

"Come look!"

The party hurried to them through the little field of huts, finding more and more of them destroyed. However, they were yet to find the bodies that Jul had spotted.

"What in the Pile?" Kur whispered, rubbing his finger across the destroyed roof of the hut that Nar had spotted. "It does look like ice… Feels like its description too."

"Was there anything about ice aether in the dungeon?" Gad asked.

"No, there isn't," Kur said, a heavy frown marring his features as he continued to poke at the cold sharpness. "But I think that's exactly what this is…"

Nar spotted something on the muddy campground, and leaned down to pick it up.

"What is it?" Tuk asked.

Nar raised his hand, displaying his find.

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"Is that a… Doll?" Tuk asked.

"What's that?" Cen asked him.

"It's like a toy…" Tuk explained. "I mean, an object that kids play with. A doll looks like a mini creature… Sapient or non-sapient."

Nar considered the ugly features of the doll, especially the two, upwards pointing long fangs, and the pointy nose and ears of the toy.

"Guess this is a mini-goblin then," Nar said, gently dropping the doll by the door of the broken hut.

"Monsters make toys?" Tuk whispered, still staring down at the unexpected find.

"Monsters are supposed to be smart," Cen said. "Capable of intelligence."

"Rather than intelligence…" Nar muttered, not sure how to finish his sentence.

"It's more like family," Tuk said. "Love. To have kids…"

"Don't think about it like that," Kur warned them. "They're not sapients. Their souls are creations of the System, and they know nothing other than their lives within the dungeon."

"But isn't that still something? I mean, to make a…"

"Tuk. Monsters will kill you on sight," Kur said, his tone dropping. "Don't expect any kind of mercy or empathy, or even communication with them. And they can be very, very cruel… Do you understand?"

"I… Yes… Of course," Tuk said, hanging his head. "Sorry."

Kur sighed. "Don't be. You have a good heart, Tuk. I just don't want you to become something's meal because you thought they were friendly, alright?"

"Yeah. Not happening," Tuk promised, scanning the camp around them. "Don't worry, I don't want to be anything's meal…"

"Good," Kur said. "Let's go check out that taller building over there."

They creeped through the chaotic array of little huts, and soon, the tall building loomed before them, and at their feet, spreading in a chaos arrayed around the building's stairs…

"Crystal," Rel whispered. "I know they're our enemies but…"

"Were they trying to protect the building, or run into it?" Gad wondered.

"Both…" Jul whispered.

"How do you know?" Mul asked her, arching one eyebrow at the short quam.

"Their bodies… They're still full of fear," she whispered.

What? Nar thought.

He scanned the closest body, a goblin who had been cut down and now lay face down in a surface of hard, icy mud. It looked grim, sure, but he saw no signs of anything out of place.

"It's fear aether," Jul clarified, for everybody.

"There's something like that?" Cen asked.

Jul nodded, reaching her hand towards one of the bodies.

"Watch out!" Nar shouted.

"Don't worry, it's attached to them," Jul said, in a faint voice. "It's no harm to me."

"But aren't they dead?" Tuk whispered.

"They are, but their fear was so strong…" Jul said, standing up and looking towards the tall building. "And it's a lot worse inside…"

"Worse?" Kur asked. He glanced around him as though asking himself if there could be anything worse than the two dozen corpses around them and their destroyed homes, but Jul didn't elaborate.

"Let's go see, then," Gad said.

"Are-Are you sure?" Tuk asked.

"We might as well gather as much information as we can," the morsvar said, her dark eyes hollow. "Understanding what happened here might hel…"

Her feet slid from under her and she stumbled harshly against the short steps leading up into the building.

"Gad!" Mul shouted, rushing to help her.

"I-I'm okay!" Gad rumbled, trying to keep her face composed. "Just, uh… Be careful. There's ice."

"More ice?" Kur asked, bending down to examine the stairs. "Ice on the buildings. Ice on the ground… Even ice on their wounds. Someone, or something, used ice skills on these goblins."

Gad stepped up the stairs once more, much more carefully this time, and pushed her clawed hand into a curtain made of vines, then pushed them aside to peer inside.

"Gad?" Nar asked, noticing how she'd gone dead still.

"I found the goblin children," she said, her tone flat.

"Ah, for fucks sake…" Tuk whispered.

And to everyone's shock, he stamped up the stairs and gazed into the dark room within.

"What… Are you doing?" Gad asked, as shocked as the rest of them. "You want to see this?"

"I don't," Tuk said. "But this shit's confusing the fuck out of me. These things are bad, yeah? But those… Those kids, they don't look bad."

He turned back and stared down at Kur, who returned Tuk's burning stare with a confused one of his own. Tuk's eyes shone with unshed tears, but his jaw was set.

"I'll kill monsters, but not monster kids," he said. "And I don't care if they reset and disappear into something else. Do you understand?"

Kur nodded. "They're no threat to us."

"Good," Tuk said.

And with that, he stomped away, heading back towards the camp's exit. Mul frowned at his departing back, then, sharing a glance with Rel, the two of them followed after the ring tosser.

"We'll keep an eye on him," Mul said. "You do what you need to do." "Don't go too far," Kur warned them.

Then, he too climbed with care up the stairs and peered inside the room, as Mul, Rel, Cen and, after a moment of hesitation, Viy too, followed after Tuk.

Nar, despite not wanting to see what lay within, felt strangely compelled to do so, as though this too, was part of the dungeon experience that he was supposed to be getting, and part of the answer of what it meant to be a delver. After all, had the mysterious ice user, or users, not done their job for them, it would've been up to the party to cut down the goblins lying dead around them.

Someone else just beat us to it, Nar thought.

However, unlike Tuk, he didn't render any judgment or make any decisions. Sure, not killing kid monsters was a given, but as for the adult monsters around them, they all had weapons of some kind with or around them, ranging from bone and stone daggers, to makeshift spears and even bows and arrows, and Nar had no doubts that these goblins wouldn't have been friendly to the party.

Though maybe they're just not friendly to anyone, Nar thought as he reached for stairs. And we're the one's coming into their dungeon…

He shook his head as he headed up the stairs. What kind of thoughts were those to be having towards the enemy?

There was an echo of crunching ice at his side, to match his own as he climbed the stairs, and he found that Jul was climbing alongside him.

"Wait? Are you sure?" Nar asked, holding her shoulder. "You don't have to see this."

"I want to," Jul told him. "I want to understand our new reality. To be tougher, as well as to know… Fear better."

Nar pursed his lips, but let go of her shoulder. "Alright. I'll be right next to you."

"Thank you," she said, with a curt smile.

The two of them reached the door, the curtain of which was still held by the tank, who had let Kur inside ahead of her, and was now waiting to do the same for the two of them.

"Thank you," Nar mumbled as he lowered his head to enter.

Within, it was dark, and his breath came out as a stream of vapor as he reached for his [Sight] to see in the dark.

Maybe I should've gone with the others… as his [Dark Vision] kicked in.

For once, he was thankful that although his [Sight] allowed him to see in the dark, especially now that it leaned on his passive [Dark Vision], it didn't give him nowhere as many details as in the light. All he saw was their shapes, strewn across the floor, and monsters or not, his heart clenched at the sight, and somehow, it was even worse in the dark and white of his [Dark Vision].

Like something straight out of a nightmare, Nar thought, his misty breath swirling around his head as he considered the rest of them room.

Save for one tall pillar standing in the middle of that small room, and which supported the roof about 10-feet above their head, the room was completely, stark empty.

Were they looted? He wondered, considering the lack of anything in the room.

"They thought it would protect them," Jul whispered.

"What would?" Kur asked, squinting in the dark.

"That thing," Jul said, pointing at the column in the middle of the room. "They called its name. Sang to it. Prayed for its protection… But in the end, it didn't matter, and they all died afraid…"

A small shiver ran through the girl at his side, and she stormed outside.

"Jul?" Nar called after her, but Gad had taken her place inside, blocking the door.

"Is it bad?" the morsvar asked.

Kur shook his head. "I can't really see that well, but..."

"It's bad," Nar said. "Really bad."

"Hmm," Gad said with a nod, her head outlined by the cold light streaming in from the outside, through the vines that made up the door. "Did Jul say that they prayed to that pillar there?"

"Yeah," Kur said, and sighed. "Crystal. What a mess."

Nar couldn't tell whether Kur was referring to their broken dungeon, the dead goblins, or the confusion of seeing their first monsters out in the wild, but maybe it was all three of them.

"And this cold… Is there more ice around?" Kur asked Nar.

"If there is, I can't see it," Nar replied. "Do you want me to… Touch one of the bodies?"

"What? No, of course not," and having said that he bent down and searched the floor with his hands. "Why would I ask you?"

"Hmm… A bit to your left," Nar said. "Forward. Yes. There."

"Frozen solid," Kur said, standing back up and wiping his hand on his pants. "And I mean that literally."

"So, we have a dungeon emptied of beasts, dungeon bosses missing, and the monsters slain with an aspect that shouldn't be in the dungeon," Gad listed. "This isn't looking good for us, is it?"

"No. Not one bit," Kur whispered. "Dungeons aren't even supposed to have monster kids. Domains, yes, but not dungeons… I don't get it. None of this is making any sense!"

"We should go," Nar said. "To the end, I mean. We need to get to that final boss as soon as possible and get out of here before whatever's happening here gets worse."

"I'd agree with you, but it's getting dark out," Kur said.

Shocked Nar lifted the curtain. "It was still bright just a few minutes ago!"

"I guess night is coming quicker too," Kur said. "Come on, let's get out of here and look for that cave. We can at least make it warm, and sleep with some protection."

"Will we harvest and loot them?" Gad said, eyeing the goblins as they stepped down the steps.

"Leave it," Kur said. "From now on, this isn't an assessment anymore. We need to focus on getting out of here alive."

"Can the dungeon reset again with us inside of it?" Nar asked.

"No," Kur said. "But with how everything is turning up… Well, I'm trying not to think about it. For now, since that hasn't happened yet, I'm still hoping that means that the final boss is still up, and we'll be able to leave once we kill those trolls."

Nar could only hope that was the case. No one had even mentioned the possibility of not being able to complete a dungeon's exit condition like that, and if the final dungeon boss was gone, would there even be a way out of the dungeon for them, or… What would happen to them, then?

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