The four of them took a well-deserved moment to catch their breath. Behind them, metal portcullis rattled as dozens upon dozens of beetles threw themselves at it.

The sound was disconcerting.

It made Kaldalis’ skin crawl to hear so many seeking pincers and knowing there were just a few metal bars between them. What if the portcullis had durability? Would they’d need to fight an endless stream of beetles filtering in through the hole, or would it just vanish in a puff of multicolored sparkles, leaving them to stare down the oncoming tide?

Thankfully, though, the beetles gave up before the scenario could play out. They skittered back the way they came to return to the ceiling.

The silence was almost deafening.

“Well. That was easy,” Myrin said, voice barely above a whisper. “What’s next?”

The four of them had a small chuckle, but they all decided to use the time to just recover. Balrim took the opportunity to spread some healing around. Kaldalis was in need, after the fall damage he took. Additionally, Haldir and Myrin had taken a few small wounds while opening up Kaldalis’s path for the exit.

As they calmed down, Kaldalis took a moment to survey their new surroundings. They were in another hallway, but this one looked badly damaged; the stone was cracked apart in places, with scratches and horizontal marks along the walls, floor and ceiling. One of the cracks in the left wall was large enough for a person to squeeze through. The hallway continued forward a little, and he was super curious.

After talking it through with his party members, Kaldalis took the opportunity to sneak ahead and see what was in store for them.

All told, the hallway was only about fifteen feet long, and at its end, it opened into another larger room. This one was square, about forty feet on a side, with four pillars defining quarters of the room.

In the center, Kaldalis saw what had no doubt caused the damage to the walls on their way in.

It was a leviabeetle, but huge. It was about the size of a bus or large cargo van; large enough that its shell would scrape against the stone if it tried to force its way through this hallway. It was laying still for now, and Kaldalis could somehow tell that it was sleeping. On the far wall, he could see another of those stone gates that likely required their remaining gear in order to open.

The presence of the gate meant that they couldn’t possibly sneak by. Pulling the chain to open the way would make enough noise to wake the beast.

“First boss,” he whispered, turning back to relay that to his friends. “We’ve got a boss fight on our hands. Are we ready?”

Balrim shook his head, and beckoned them all back into the hall. Myrin danced impatiently from foot to foot. She looked towards the boss room like a sad puppy, but eventually followed her friends.

“I’ve been looking for a chance to put this to use,” Balrim said once they’d retreated back towards the portcullis. “I’ve been skilling up my cooking. I can put something together here for us for some helpful stat boosts.”

“Alright,” Kaldalis said, looking back over his shoulder towards the boss room. “That’s a good idea. That thing looks like it could step on me and crush me like a bug. Um… pun intended, I guess? Any advantage we can get to undo that role reversal is welcome.”

“What do you need from us?” Myrin asked. “How can we help?”

“I have everything I need, materials wise. I just need a few minutes to put it all together.”

Myrin grimaced. “I hate waiting, though.”

“Seems like you have a choice,” Kaldalis said. “You can either sit here and complain about it, or don’t.”

“I just get antsy,” Myrin said, bristling.

“How about we do some exploring, then?” Kaldalis gestured to the large crack in the wall. “Maybe there’s something in there worth investigating.”

“Anything to not just sit here.” Myrin said, already moving towards the gap. She paused and looked to Haldir. “Are you coming?”

The other DPS looked at the crack in the wall for just a second before shaking his head. “Mmm, no. I’ll stay here, just in case something shows up to threaten our valuable healer.”

“Thanks,” Balrim said as he pulled from his inventory something that looked like a little camping stove. “I hate cooking alone.”

Kaldalis wanted to stay and see what Balrim was making before he went exploring, but Myrin was already pushing her way into the wall. He hurried to follow in case she ended up getting in trouble sooner rather than later and needed a save.

The crack in the wall looked narrow and he was worried he wouldn’t fit. But once he started, Kaldalis’s barrel chest wasn’t a huge impediment, and he was able to push forward. What was a larger problem was his horns. He had to hold his head at a particular angle or else they scraped against the stone.

Painfully.

It meant he couldn’t see where he was going until the crack opened up around him.

Which definitely wasn’t like some weird horror game or something.

The crack went for about five or six feet before space opened up around him and he was able to look up.

Kaldalis found himself in a natural cave. The stone was uneven, but smooth, and the floor was littered with fragments of rocks. He could stand up comfortably, but he had to hunch over due to the stalactites hanging down where they obscured his view.

Near at hand, Myrin had no such trouble, since she was so short.

“Neat!” she said, looking around. “There’s actually a tunnel down here.”

“But why?” Kaldalis asked. “How did it get here?”

“It looks like the flow of water.” Myrin touched the cavern’s smooth floor. “Maybe whoever built this tapped into an underground river or something, and drained it.”

“A good theory, and probably true from an in-world perspective,” Kaldalis said, “but I was more wondering why dungeon designers would put it here.”

“You’re the one who said to start thinking of things that way,” Myrin grumbled. “I don’t know. Maybe there’s loot in here, too?”

“Let’s find out,” Kaldalis said, gesturing ahead. “You go first, since this tunnel seems to be sized for you instead of me.”

She gave a huff at that, but led the way down the tunnel. It opened up a little bit past where it met with the outer wall of the ruins, but Kaldalis still had to be hunched over.

The tunnel itself was about ten feet wide, and instead of moss, the stone was covered in splotchy lichen, with colors ranging from green to orange. Kaldalis watched his step so as to not disturb it, since he didn’t know if stepping on it might release a mass of spores, or create other trouble.

Distantly, he heard the sound of dripping water.

Myrin wandered ahead, heedless of how well Kaldalis kept up. He grew concerned that she might get too far ahead and get into trouble where he couldn’t help, and he forced himself to try and match her pace just in case. The distant dripping noise was growing louder, and he was concerned that it meant this was the proper way forward for the dungeon, and the giant beetle might have been the way for optional loot.

He caught up to her when she drew up short at the mouth of a larger chamber. The air here smelled of salt water, and as he peered into the cavern, he could see why.

When whatever underground river was here still ran, this was where it emptied into the sea. There was a clear groove in the stone where the water had flowed, and much rougher stone around the rest of the room. One side of the cavern was a giant pool of water, and Kaldalis could smell from here that it was the ocean.

He was about to say as much when a creature lurched from the water and surged towards them.

It was a familiar beast: a nautilobster, with a lobster-like body, a face full of tentacles, and a spiral shell for a tail. Kaldalis was immediately concerned about what tricks it might have inside of a dungeon. He stepped in front of Myrin to meet the creature’s charge.

All his fears dissipated as soon as he struck. He did one-hundred and four damage at a stroke, and the creature staggered under the impact. He was confused about how he’d done so much damage even as he was whirling his weapon around to strike it again. Its shell shattered under the strike and it fell still. He was informed he had killed a nautilobster, and earned 16 exp.

“What the fuck,” Myrin asked. “What did you do?”

“I, um… I-I just two-shot it,” he stammered. “What the fuck?”

“OH!” Myrin said, waving her hand, mouth open as if she was trying to use the gesture to find the words and physically put them into her mouth. “I know what that was! And I know what this tunnel is!”

“Well, I don’t. So I’m all ears?”

“It’s an exit.” She pointed to the water. “That’s seawater. Seawater from the ocean. If we swim straight out, we’ll get outside of the dungeon, right?”

“Oh, duh. That’s why that monster just fell over,” Kaldalis said, nodding along as he followed her logic. “It’s not a dungeon monster. It’s an overworld monster. The same quest fodder we’ve been hunting since we got here.” He squinted at the water distrustfully. “But why?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Myrin asked, despite the fact that it obviously wasn’t. “The boss is a gear check. If you don’t have the DPS, you can’t kill the boss. If you can’t kill it-” she paused and pointed to the water- “then that’s the walk of shame to get back to the surface.”

Kaldalis got a chill, remembering that all of them were wearing at least a handful of lower-level charms.

A gear check? Already?

Fuck. They weren’t prepared at all.

He hoped the swim back wasn’t going to be too rough.