We arrive at a flight of wide granite stairs within a cave entrance. They are regimented and crisp; completely at odds with the random and haphazard twisting shape of the dungeon’s walls.

“Stairs?” I ask.

“To the second floor.” Graem replies.

“No, I mean, I didn’t expect stairs in what has so far looked like a natural cave system? Did the dungeon put them here or?”

“The Adventurer’s Guild pays people to dig and lay them out,” Graem replies. “It’s an expensive procedure cutting through the dungeon. Its rock is far tougher than regular stone, and grows stronger the deeper you cut into it.”

“Tougher than regular stone? How does that work?”

“No one knows.” Graem shrugs. “It just is, Reed.”

“But why bother digging stairs?”

“Because it’s safer to walk up and down stairs then to try to maintain your balance when descending without stairs. Especially in a fight.”

“But we’re Adventurers, isn’t risk taking part of the job?”

“Indeed. However, the Guilds’ all believe in mitigating unnecessary risks.”

Laela snorts.

Graem turns to her. “You hear something, Laela?”

“No,” she replies curtly, while staring at Graem with barely hidden fury. “Not a squeak.”

“Then let’s go.” Graem says, while stepping lightly down onto the first stair.

Slowly we descend after him, down towards the second floor of the dungeon. Each granite stair is big enough that Gorm can comfortably tread down without his toes hanging over the edges. The downside is that for the rest of us regular sized people each stair takes two steps. I count the stairs as we go, at the fortieth the end of the stairs appears in sight. The second floor.

Graem, still leading our procession, halts and raises a hand. “Laela do you hear anything up ahead?”

“Still nothing,” she replies.

“Okay. We’ll stay in this area. We’ll wait till we hear or see any hobgoblins. If there are more than two we’ll retreat. Less and we fight them.”

There is no reply, but the firm, steady gazes of my companions into the cavern ahead of us is a form of acknowledgement all of its own. We stay alert for a while, each of us ready to advance or retreat at a word from Graem. But nothing happens. Eventually, Gorm rests his hammer flat on the ground and sits beside it with a bored expression. Around a minute later Jaed sits too, her spear laid out across her legs. Eventually the tension gets to Graem and he sits too; I take that as a cue that there won’t be an issue if I sit too. Finally, only Laela stays standing, her hand on her dagger’s hilt and her body tense like a compressed spring.

“Laela, you don’t have to-” Graem starts but is interrupted by Laela’s shushing.

“Shh. I hear something.”

“What is it?” I whisper.

“Only one way to find out,” Gorm replies, while pushing himself to his feet with his hammer.

“Quiet,” Laela hisses. “It sounds like hobgoblins.”

“How many?” Graem whispers.

“I don’t know for sure but not many,” Laela replies. “Even with Heightened Senses active there’s too much background noise interefering.”

Graem nods. “Then let’s get ready. Remember, no one engage until I’ve used Grasping Vines.”

And with that, we once more anxiously wait. Only this time it isn’t long before I hear something. A slight chittering, growing louder.

“Two of them. Dead ahead,” Laela whispers. “I can’t see any others.”

Graem nods. As the hobgoblins step closer into view he calls out, “Grasping Vines!”

Instantly, the hobgoblins are caught. Their bodies held still in the vines. Before, I even move Laela and Gorm are already sprinting ahead.

“Berserk,” Laela softly announces.

“Berserk,” Gorm growls uniterested in the pretense of stealth.

“Berserk,” I mouth, rushing after them, now even further behind.

“Lacerate!”

“Crushing Blow!”

Laela’s dagger glows red before ripping through the hobgoblin’s throat. Its head flies off its body and green blood explodes out of its neck. Simultaneously, Gorm’s hammer connects with the other hobgoblin’s chest. As it impacts the hobgoblin swings backwards, chest first, further into the vines. Blood spills out its mouth, as the vines reflexively swing back righting themselves.

I stop in my tracks. Laela turns rapidly to Gorm, then spins around looking past me. I twist to where she is looking but there is nothing there. I turn back to Laela and see her release a loud sigh.

The sound of clapping arises from the stairwell. “Two strikes, two dead hobgoblins. Incredible work.” Graem says, with a big grin plastered across his face.

“Too easy.” Gorm mutters unenthusiastically.

I scratch the back of my head. “Yeah, I didn’t even have to do anything.”

Laela ignores us and moves to cut the ears off the caught hobgoblins.

“Can you hear anymore coming Laela?” Graem asks cheerfully.

Laela turns around with the first of the four bloody hobgoblin ears in hand. “No, but we should head back upstairs, regardless. It’s not good to be down here with so many of our abilities on cooldown.”

“Okay.” Graem lifts his hands defensively. “Point taken, we’ll go back upstairs and come back down once our abilities have reset.”

Laela nods firmly with the rest of the ears now in hand and leads the way back up the stairs. It isn’t long before we reach the top again, and I’m pleased to find Graem and Jaed the most exhausted. Looks like I’ve found a new use for Berserk; climbing stairs.

“So.” Graem begins staring at Laela. “How are you feeling?”

“You aren’t expecting me to change my mind after one fight, are you?”

“No…” Graem trails off. “But you’ll agree we are far more capable than we were last time. It only took three of us to pulverize those hobgoblins. Before we couldn’t even handle one.”

“Because they were caught in your Grasping Vines. They won’t always be.”

“Right, that was critical. However, we might be able to handle them without Grasping Vines.”

Laela looks at Graem uncertainly. “Maybe.”

“Indeed, maybe. When we go back down, we will try fighting them without Grasping Vines. If things go wrong, we flee back up the stairs and I will activate Grasping Vines then.”

Laela looks wearily at Graem and bites her lip.

“Laela, it’ll be fine. I mean of course if only one or two hobgoblins approach. Any more and we retreat back up the stairs. You can be in charge of making the call of whether we fight or not.”

Laela looks deeply into Graem’s bright eyes and sighs. “Fine. Let’s try it.”

Graem smiles. “Good. Then let’s head back down.”

“It’s time, there’s only two.” Laela whispers.

“Well then, the order to engage. This is a welcome shock. You sure we shouldn’t wait for just one” Graem said through a rueful smile.

I understood his feelings. It must have been at least fifteen minutes that we spent waiting for a comfortably sized group of hobgoblins to pass the stairwell. Thrice Laela had given us the command to retreat, it was to the point that even Jaed has begun to look annoyed with her overcautious attitude.

Laela wasn’t so understanding. Turning to Graem she stares balefully at him , before calling out a little louder, “get ready.”

I do so, readying my spear just as the the first hobgoblin appears at the cavern’s periphery. Noticing us immediately it charges at our well-lit group. With how quickly the last fight had wrapped up, I forgot that this is how the dungeon monsters normally act upon seeing us brave adventurers.

“Go!” Laela cries. “Berserk!” Then she rushes forth to meet the hobgoblins.

“Berserk!” Gorm and I roar, before chasing after her.

Steadily we near her almost catching up, but Laela is the first to engage the two side-by-side hobgoblins.

“Lacerate!” she cries, weaving under the left hobgoblins arm and near slicing it off at the elbow. A spiderweb of veins writhe out from the wound and green blood sprays out of the wound.

“Crushing Blow!” Gorm yells a second later swinging his hammer at the weakened and distracted first hobgoblin. His hit lands true against its ear slamming the hobgoblin to the ground.

Yet Gorm’s haste left an opening for the other hobgoblin. If I can see it, it can too. I rush forward hoping to intercept it before it can strike. Its claws lash out. Too late.

“Watch out!” I cry.

“Stalwart Defense!” Gorm yells, twisting his body defensively in anticipation of the strike.

Claws strike skin, but barely a mark is left on Gorm’s muscly forearm. Then he shoves it backwards away from him. Laela takes a step behind it and I find myself to its side. Surrounded and pinned. Weren’t the second floor monsters supposed to be harder to deal with?

Gorm glances down at his arm and grins. “Weak.”

“Be careful Gorm.” Laela urges.

“Of the oversized goblin?” Gorm laughs. “Bah!”

“Reed, aim for its stomach.” Laela cries. “I’ll try to weaken it.”

I nod, and step forward into a well-practiced thrust. The hobgoblin leaps backwards, but as planned Laela’s knife cuts into its skin.

It twists away from her as I thrust again, this time my spear piercing its stomach.

Dealt 25 Health Points: Piercing damage.

I push harder forcing it to the ground. It flops there trapped like one of the hundreds of goblins I had put down on the first floor. It looks at me confused and then then Gorm’s hammer crashes down upon its disgusting face.

Awarded 15 experience points for assisting in the defeat of a hobgoblin.

I rip my spear out and the hobgoblin falls flat to the ground with a barely audible thud.

Laela steps forwards to cut the ears off. Except no, she isn’t cutting the ears off. She’s just staring at the corpses quizzically.

“We really did it?” Laela whispers.

“Judging from the bodies, I’d say so yeah.” I smirk, before elbowing her a little. “You fought well.”

“Hard to believe it. It was so…” Laela loudly clicks her tongue apparently unsure herself.

“Easy?” I ask.

She kicks the most recent corpse weakly. Perhaps unconvinced by the blue screen notifications and expecting it to leap back up. “Yeah.”

“Definitely not what I expected either.” I smile.

Before Laela can reply we are interrupted by a warm cheer. “Well done!” It’s Jaed approaching with Graem. Each of them wearing their delight proudly on their faces.

“Flawless. They didn’t stand a chance.” Graem says, his tone is equally delighted. Then he laughs boisterously, while placing his hand on Laela’s shoulder. “Seriously, what were we even worried about!?”