Eric POV

  The puddle slimes weren't hard to deal with but they were draining Rachels mana rather quickly. The bears on the other hand were a really tough fight in general. Though not nearly as tough as some of the rumored creatures outside the dungeon. I still remember the sheer panic I felt the first time two giant bears the size of polar bears came charging at us. Not that I now how big polar bears are exactly but there was nothing else I could compare them to. When they rear up they are easily twice my height or more. Fortunately, We are not the same people who were just trying to earn some money to buy food at the vastly exaggerated prices the stores were trying to sell them at.

  They first tried just bowling us over. I suspect they wanted to pin one of us to the ground but I can't confirm that as we were all able to dodge in time. Naturally, me and Amy being the two who were more focused towards melee when out to confront them. The bear I was facing soon took a swipe at me. I was able to dodge under it and deliver a cut that left a nasty gash in the bears side. It turns out their size was also their greatest weakness. Not because they were slow but because their paws could only reach so far. Especially while they were trying to intimidate you by making themselves as tall as possible.

  Which is not to say that we never got hit. On the contrary Damien put in a lot of work as a healer, and that's on top of the healing potions which I'm suddenly glad we brought. Fortunately he had been upgrading his healing skill in order to make it actually useful. After around the third or fourth fight we were slowly starting to get used to fighting those bears. Sadly we didn't find anything useful before deciding to head back.

  As we approached the tunnel we came from one thing suddenly dawned on me. Judging by the look on Amy's face I can't tell she has also noticed the problem. We now have to lug our loot up what essentially felt like somewhere between a five and ten story building. And then we'll probably have to face the first floor boss again. Only this time we'll be completely drained and exhausted to boot. Entering the tunnel however I suddenly saw a bright flash of light and was suddenly standing at the entrance to the first floor. I was shocked to say the least but quickly calmed down when I looked around and saw the others standing their with me. I don't know how we got past all the stuff on the first floor, especially the boss, but I'm also not about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Dungeon POV

  That was Amazing. I do wish they had explored more than 300m in a single direction. Still I did get a lot of DP from the time they spent on the second floor. Beside even if they insist on going right down the middle I did put in a few nodes along the direct path for them to find. In the mean time, I've got DP to spend.

  I start by adding a couple of wolf spawners at the 1km mark. I then spend an extra 70 DP on each one to get it up to level four. Of course I then hade the wolves patrol the middle third of the floor. Just like with the first floor their is a bit of overlap between bears and wolves. If Eric's group insists on going directly towards the boss there should be something for them to fight past the bears. These wolves are also the first mobs to have coordinated attacking capability. Not quite pack tactics but not too far off either. In stead of spreading out evenly they tend to bunch up in groups of five or six.

  I still have a few hundred DP but for now I think I'll just sit on it until the next delve group comes along. I do still want to finish up with my loot node upgrades and they are getting rather expensive. In fact the last few upgrades will cost more than half as much as all the other loot node upgrades combined. Loot nodes are level for level the most expensive things I have both to place and to upgrade. Fortunately, it took only about a day for the next group of delvers to arrive.

  It was another large group of first timers. There were four women, and six men, plus three children ranging in age from newborns to around five or six. It was plain to see they had no idea what they were getting themselves into. The women and children stayed huddled together close to the entrance but inside the dungeon. The men on the other all ventured further into the first floor of the dungeon. From there conversation they were checking to see if it was safe to spend the night here. It very much was not but they'll soon figure that out.

  It cost a small bit of DP but I ordered the rats to avoid attacking the women and children. I do still have some humanity left after all. The men on the other hand were fair game. Needles to say they didn't make it very far before being forced to turn around. Especially since only two of them had anything even remotely close to weapons and those were just wood chopping axes. I may have also sent more rats than was technically fair but I really didn't want then setting up camp inside the entrance. The good news is that when they did leave they were headed in the direction Eric's group usually goes so they should be fine.

  On the bright side the small amount of DP I was able to gain put me over the top and I was finally able to upgrade the loot node near the boss to level 4. That just left one more to upgrade to level 4 and then this one to upgrade to level 5. Which is still going to run me another 700DP, so it's not something that I can easily afford.