His eyes went wide when Lydia just smiled and asked him to tell her about such stuff sooner. No lecture? No cursing? Are you for real?

And just because he had to know: "You're not angry?"

"Oh, I could strangle you, but then you won't be able to tell me about the interesting small details that I missed along the way."

Is she too naive or just dumb? This should've been the part where she denies it and later uses it to kick me out, thought Crear.

"To tell the truth, we three don't mix well with other people, because of... circumstances. I stopped counting how many adventurers joined us because we had a sorceress and then left for one or the other reason."

"Hah! Then you came to Brookwasp City at the right time." A crooked smile appeared on his face, but he didn't elaborate. Same situation, eh? Did the Guild Master, son of a sick troll that he is, know this? I'm positive he recommended me. It was the first time I saw her in the guild tavern to look for people and she went straight for me.

"You wanted to know what I think about this dungeon? First: The rank assessment is crap. I don't believe it. Second: The writing on the tori. Third: The much too obvious traps. Fourth: The vanishing paths. Then the type of the dungeon. Not enough plants and animals for a nature-type. But it doesn't fit a ruin-type either. Then there would be more traps and some treasure chests about. You did hear that there were two names for this dungeon? Fishy, if you ask me. And don't get me started on those missing bats."

"Bats? Oh..." Lydia looked sheepishly to the side. "The receptionist did say there were big bats on the first floor. But I didn't see them either... At least we now know why their maps didn't overlap. They must've picked a different path right from the start."

"Wrong. Not even the start looked the same. The first group had a corridor with a bend to the right. The second group had a straight corridor like us, but the first room had only one possible exit."

"You mean this dungeon changes its layout for every group?" Horror crept into her voice.

A flicker down the corridor caught his eyes. He had an arrow nocked and drawn before Lydia had turned her head to stare down the corridor. When nothing else moved, he slowly released the tension.

"Nothing," he mumbled, flicking his eyes from left to right, outright dissecting the corridor with his roving gaze.

"Say, is it just my imagination or are the torches in the back dimmer?" asked Lydia, squinting her eyes.

Another flickering movement and he could watch as a torch first burned out, then flickered back to light with a darker, dimmer blue than before. It left an uncomfortable feeling in his stomach.

"Roric, Thira! Wake up!" thundered Lydia behind him, kicking Roric awake from the sounds.

Crear grabbed his own bag and slung it over his shoulders without letting the corridor out of his sight. An arrow was back on his bow almost immediately. Another torch flickered and changed color.

"What's going on?" asked a sleepy voice.

"Grab Thira and get ready this instant!" roared Lydia.

Someone stumbled behind him, things clattered onto stone. Crear refused to turn around, keeping his gaze on the corridor. Something was moving in the dim light of the changed torches. It may very well be the giant bats they were missing. But even an F-ranked creature could kill a hero if they were caught unaware.

Another torch dimmed.

"Crear, we're ready! Get behind Roric!"

He didn't budge from his spot.

"What are you doing?!" screamed Lydia.

"Checking out what is moving back there," was his calm reply. His heart was in his throat.

The remaining torches in the corridor flickered out at the same time, throwing a good stretch into darkness.

Flapping? He pulled the arrow back to his ear. Someone grabbed him and pulled him backwards. Fumbling for his balance, he dropped his arrow. The bowstring snapped uselessly against his bracer.

"You can see them just as fine from here!" An angry Lydia stood next to him, Roric had stepped to the front, blocking the single entrance.

With a shrug, he pushed her hands away and stood up, looking down the corridor. An instant later, it was filled with a myriad of large bats, flapping and screeching with their high-pitched voices.

"Are they blocked by the tori?" whispered Thira huddling in her carry bag on the far side of the room.

One large bat flew over Rorics head into the room.

"Horse piss!" cursed Lydia, stabbing it with her spear. It dropped to the ground with a splatter of blood.

Roric hefted his sword with a smile. "Finally something to smash!" He moved into the corridor, hacking and slashing into the large bats. There was not much skill needed. There were so many that a single hit killed at least two bats.

"Wait, you idiot!" Lydia stormed after him, killing any bat that had survived Rorics gleeful swings. "Crear, look after Thira!"

"How did you guys even get to C-rank?" muttered Crear quietly. The pair turned around the corner and vanished from sight, leaving a mess of blood and body parts behind.

"My brother is scary good with his sword. Even if he is a moron. But he listens to Lydia. She's a good leader. Besides, anyone can reach C-rank if they complete enough missions and dungeons and do a little test at the guild. Roric botched it twice, because the test was on dungeon basics and magical creatures. The third time, he got a combat test." Thira giggled. "We've been at C-rank for a year now. What about you? Have you been a C-rank for long?"

"Don't you want to check up on them?" asked Crear instead, dodging the question.

"What, against F-ranked bats? No. They could even beat a B-ranked Minotaur. No need to worry." Thira forced out a laugh.

They fell silent and listened to the sounds of the one-sided massacre.

"Aw, man. I wish it was something other than pesky little bats," laughed Roric.

"Stop whining, you big oaf. How often did I tell you to not leave the party behind, eh?" Lydia whacked Roric over the head as they came around the bend once more.

"Ouch! Sorry... but wasn't that fun? Hey! You two all right?" Roric greeted them with a blood splattered grin.

"Eww. Get that blood off!" Thira recoiled slightly.

"Oh, sorry. Totally forgot about that. The foxes didn't bleed."

Blood! Crear leaned close to Roric, inspecting the red splotches on his armor.

"Hey, a bit distance, please?" Roric stepped back, his hands raised defensively. "I don't-"

"Blood," interrupted Crear, rubbing at a fresh splotch on Rorics armor and inspecting his fingers.

"Yes, blood. Don't tell me you've never seen blood, boy."

"No, blood! Don't you get it?" Crear pushed his bloody finger into Rorics face before rushing down the exact same corridor with a happy smile.

"Not another one!" hissed Lydia. A glare sent Roric into the corner to watch Thira, while Lydia followed her second wayward party member.

The room looked even more like a massacre than the corridor. Pieces of bats stuck to the walls and were scattered on the ground. Blood pooled in the cracks between the stones.

"I get Roric. Been traveling with him long enough to know that he's a battle junkie. But what's wrong with you?" Lydia leaned against the tori, watching Crear pick his path through the mess and crouching down next to the most intact corpse.

He looked back and she was positive he had rolled his eyes at her. "What happened to the foxes?"

"Why does that matter?"

"What happened to the foxes?" he asked again, pulling a dagger from his belt and cutting the bat open. With soft fingers, he pulled the entrails out and set them onto the bloody ground. Single pieces of bone followed. Then whatever else had been inside the bat, in a systematic way.

Lydia gulped and looked away. "They vanished, of course. Leaving nothing behind, not even... blood..." It dawned on her then that she had missed a fundamental problem. Without corpses, they wouldn't be able to harvest pelts and fangs or magical shards to sell for money. And if the dungeon had locked doors, the monsters usually dropped the key items necessary to open said doors.

"Oh great Spirits! What a rotten, pus-spitting, farting dungeon!"

"If you're finished, you can help me sort through these pieces. We could get lucky and find 4 red stones in the size of fox eyes. If they're not in this," he waved a hand around the room, "then we'll search through every corpse in the corridor." Crear scribbled something into a booklet with bloody fingers before putting it away and reaching for the next bat.

"Yuck." Sniffing slightly, Lydia crouched down to inspect the pieces of bat in front of her.

She picked one corpse apart, then moved on to the next corpse, trying to think nothing. This is so disgusting! Killing them, fine. And cutting of an ear or tooth as proof of killing it for the Guild. But this? Urgh. I could get Roric to do it. She looked towards Crear, who had already searched through triple the corpses. He would look down on me if I pushed it off on Roric. And after he finally started speaking a little! Why do they have to be so small!

Nauseous, she finished her current bat corpse and reached for the next, cutting it open and picking its innards apart. Grabbing for the tiny heart, she felt a hard knot instead. "Hii!" shocked, she scooted backwards, landing squarely in a pool of blood and cut off wings. Little bones crunched beneath her, sending a cold shiver down her spine.

"What?" Crear looked at her.

"There..." she gulped, dragged the last bit of her courage out of a corner of her mind and pointed with a shivering finger. "A... mutated... bat."

He came over and rummaged through the corpse without a care. Droplets of warm blood sprayed everywhere. "Aha!" With what felt like a condescending glare, he held the tiny knot triumphantly into the air, pushing it in her direction and watching her scoot back even further. "Worrywart. It's the stone we were searching for. That makes all 4."

"Wh... what? You... you..."

He opened his other hand and showed her three small bloody stones.

"Get up. Time to test that theory with the eyes."

Lydia slunk after him. Her head hung low with humiliation.

"What happened to you?! You look horrible!" cried Thira as they walked into the room.

Lydia wordlessly stopped at the tori.

"Your face is as white as snow! What happened?" asked Thira again.

"Nothing..." said Lydia with a dejected half-smile.

"We got the eyes - or what could be the eyes. Who wants to put them in?" Crear gave them all a look. When no one volunteered, he shrugged his shoulders and pushed the stones into the eye sockets of the statues.

There was... nothing. No rumbling sound, no screech, no blinding light, just... nothing. One moment, there was a stone wall, the next they looked at the stairs to the next floor. And a fine white line that wrote new letters onto the right pillar.

Challengers: 4

Next Difficulty: Medium - Should I lower it again?

Under the words was the stylized face of a fox.

"A dungeon with snark. That's new," remarked Crear. "Do you want to move the camp or stay here?"

"Move." Lydia's answer was immediate. As far away from those corpses as possible! screeched her mind. She moved past him with stiff legs. The drying blood on her hands was starting to itch and she longingly thought of a bath. Spirits shorn paws, even a cold river would do!

Roric carried Thira and the packs down, while Crear brought up the rear.

Halfway down the stairs, they stopped.

"Hey, girl. Can you make some water?" asked Crear.

"You can't drink magic water."

"I don't want to drink it. I want to wash my hands before I touch my food. Who knows where those bats have been?"

"Oh..." Thira looked at his bloody hands. Then to Lydia. "Never thought about that." She stretched her hands out, palms up and mumbled something under her breath. A heartbeat later, she had a droplet hovering over her hands. It took 20 heartbeats for the droplet to grow into a head sized ball of water.

"Thank the Spirits!" Lydia rushed over first, thrusting her hands into the water ball and scrubbing the blood off as best she could. When she was finished, the water ball was a deep red. Apologetic, she looked at Crear and mumbled a "sorry."

"I can make a new one. Just a moment." Thira pushed the water ball away from her and let it splash on the stairs below her, before conjuring another one.

"...inefficient..." muttered Crear, washing his hands and taking up a spot further down the stairs.

By the Spirits fluffy ears! Lydia saw Rorics hand jerk towards his sword. It's only a matter of time before Roric picks a fight with him. I hope he waits until we're out of this Spirit-forsaken dungeon. And that Crear comes away with not too many bruises.

"Let's eat something, take a short nap and continue," she said in the hopes of dissuading the growing discontent Roric held towards Crear.

"I can take the watch while you rest?" said Thira. "I'm not tired at all. In fact, I haven't done anything other than drawing maps and sleeping ever since we entered this dungeon."

"It's a low-ranked dungeon. You needn't take a watch," hissed Roric.

"But I want to help you!"

"No!"

Not this again, thought Lydia. Here comes the overprotective brother. I don't need a sibling squabble right now!

"Ahem. I had thought of keeping watch, but I can hand it to you, Roric, if you'll be awake anyway?" proposed Lydia carefully. All she got was a growl as an obvious denial, as Roric wrapped a bedroll around himself. Thira huffed unhappily.

Thus ended their exploration of the second floor.