I pulled myself back up to my feet muttering about, “turn about being fair play and all that.”

Blink had taken several minutes to calm down from when I woke her up and she wasn’t thrilled with how I did it. She couldn’t understand that it was the same thing that she had done to me all those times.

Blink and I headed back past the fires. The gremlins were all gone now. On our way, I found my bow and managed to get two of the arrow back. The other three were broken, which, while a loss, wasn’t that bad since they would regrow by tomorrow.

Blink was the one to find the treasure chest in the middle of the large room. Like the other two chests I had seen, it was sitting on a raised platform. However, unlike the others, it wasn’t lit up.

I pulled out my torch and lit it using one of the close-by fires and then started my inspection of the box. After the last one being trapped and the one before that being an ambush, I had the right to be a little scared.

I laced a spear or other long stick to open it with, so I used my sword from a side to flip the latch and lift the lid. I was quite happy that I took the precautions that I did as I saw a cloud of dust fly up from the chest. As the dust was going up, I jumped back, but I threw my torch forward as I did so. It wasn’t because I thought it would do anything, only that I wanted to keep some of the dust back.

It might have been flour for all I knew. However, when my torch hit the dust, it all caught. Now, if it had just been the flame, I would have been fine, but there was something else in there. Some other part of the trap. I heard the telltale sound of the air rushing in, and then a fooph and a ball of smoke and flame went flying out of the chest.

It didn’t go far, maybe only ten feet before it exploded, but the heat was all around and intense. I felt my face start to burn just from the brief amount of heat. I had to quickly pat down the bit of my beard that I had left so that it would stop smoldering.

Once I had my beard calmed down, I moved over to the chest. That same beautiful light that had been coming out of the other two chests was coming out of this one as well. As I approached, I got a happy feeling like all the fighting had been worth it. That everything I had gone through was okay and that this chest would make everything better.

I dropped to my knees with a smile on my face and sunk both my arms into the warm, gentle light. As I passed them in, my fingers found what felt like a pair of metal gloves. As I pulled them out, I was happy with what I saw.

They were leather gloves covered with fine chainmail that looked like steel or perhaps high-quality iron. The chainmail was on the fingers and backs of the hands and ran down to circle the whole wrists. The insides of the gauntlets were the leather so whatever I head wouldn’t slip. On the back of the hand was a single large plate.

Chainmail Dungeon Gauntlets

+2 defense to location

+1 to deflect to location

Dungeon gauntlets like all armor from a Dungeon will adjust to fit the one wearing it. As the first one to wear it your family crest will be applied. The crest of REDACTED has been added.

They were just as good as the greaves were, which made an excellent addition to what I was wearing. Of course, they would be even better once I got a chance to work on them in a safe room.

I reached back in the now dark chest and found a small bag of coins and one yellow vial. I examined the yellow vial to see if I could get a name.

Potion of poison resistance.

This potion will give you 60 seconds of level 3 poison resistance.

Well, the good thing was that I now had something that would help with poison. The bad things with this vial were many. I didn’t know if I needed to take this before being poisoned or if taking it after would help cure it. I also didn’t know what the different levels of poison resistance did.

Overall this one little vial raised more questions than it answered and added a slight feeling of dread. If there were enough poison users out there that potions were made, that meant that so far, I had been mainly lucky to have not been poisoned but the one time. And that had been venom, so I wasn’t sure if this would fix that or not.

I slid the gauntlets on and watched as they resized. As I stood, I looked around; I was worried I was missing something. I heard a hiss from behind me and turned quickly only to see that the chest was starting to dissolve. The chest took its time to melt and returned to the floor of the dungeon cave that we were in now.

Once more, we headed off. Across the room was a single exit, and so that was where we were heading. As we approached, I saw that it sloped down. The dungeon on this floor was going even further down.

We journeyed down through a winding path that was now the dungeon. As we went, there were small rooms off to the sides with single fires in them. Each room was empty except for the fire and a bag or barrel. The bags and barrels were odd as the gremlins didn’t build anything. They were all out of place, but I didn’t begrudge that they were there as each one held some minor item.

I found torches in some of the barrels. The bags or sacks tended to have dungeon food or a copper coin. I found the occasional rusty iron dagger but nothing better as far as weapons. The thing that frustrated me were the number of bolts I found. It seemed like every other room had four or five in the bag.

I didn’t even try to take the barrels, so I didn’t know if they had the same issue as the sacks had. I couldn’t move them from beside the fire. It was like the sacks were part of the dungeon and not another bag that I could pick up. It was yet another one of the odd things about this place. It was meant to teach how to fight with the gremlins. Yet here I was in tunnels; whereas when I had dreamed of them or fought them myself, I was always outside.

It was another thirty minutes of us pushing on before we got to the end of the tunnels. There before us what the same setup as on the first floor. A chest to the left of the stairs glowing from inside, and a door to the right of the gated stairs. This time, however, just in front of the stairs was another chest. This one was larger than the one that was on the raised dais.

Of all the chests I had seen so far, this one called to me the most. It was large, and where the others were plain dark wood with iron bands, this one was painted red, and the bands were polished bronze. It had on it a padlock that appeared to be the size of my hand. I was excited to get into that one. The chests so far had given me the best prizes.

I paused before heading into the room. On the first floor, there had been guards going back and forth; however, there was nothing here. Now it could be that the gremlins had all been pulled out for the mad fight at the start. Which I kind of find odd as the rest of this place could have been a great grind.

I guess we had just been unlucky with getting swarmed by everyone at once. Perhaps it was lucky since I had the pit that I could force them through. Either way, it was done with, and I got two chests and here at the end.

I remembered how, on the first floor, there were things other than the skeletons, so I was going to make sure that there was nothing else here.

“Blink, check around and make sure that the coast is clear.” I sent to her.

I watched the room as I felt Blink move off to my right. She was able to use the walls in here since the room was back to the stone block. I saw nothing as I waited for her to move around the room. I could only tell where she was from the bond, and nothing else seemed to move at all.

“No hunts. Sleeps nows,” was what she sent back to me after just a few minutes.

I stood up from the edge of the room and headed toward the normal chest first. I was counting on this being trapped and figured that I would get my regular rewards first. Then I would figure out how to get into the other chest.

I used my sword once again to open the box from the side. I was expecting an explosion or a crossbow bolt again. I would even be willing to bet on poison on the latch. However, none of those things happened. It was almost disappointing to find a non-trapped chest.

I reached into the glowing white light and pulled out my treasure. I found what I thought was a box inside, but when I got it free of the light, the joy that I had faded quickly. I held in my hands a large leather-bound book. Just because I hated myself, I pulled it up in the interface.

Skill book

Panpipes 1-3

Level:Uncommon

At least it wasn’t a skill that I cared about. I was never one that played music; I could hardly remember a tune, so to me, it didn’t matter much. Though it could have been fun to play just as something else to do when bored.

I peered into the chest to see another small sack, a large brass key, and a set of slightly glowing panpipes. I checked the bag first and saw that there were several silver coins and one gold coin. To say that I was happy would be an understatement. I got a skill book and a huge payout. But, of course, that could only mean that the locked chest would have even more.

I checked out the Panpipes to see what made them special.

Pipes of the piper

These pipes have a rich magical history

Those who can play them have the ability to do much

+5 all bardic songs while playing

+5 hp per minute per level of pipe while playing for area of effect

+5 Mana regeneration per level of pipe while playing for area of effect

*once at level 3 Pan pipe song of calm can be played.

Target must make a will power check or stop all hostile actions

Number of targets increases 1 every 5 levels of pipe

I guessed I would have to learn how to play the pan pipes on my own somehow. The mana regeneration alone would make my abilities much better. Although I couldn’t play it in combat, it would save me so much time when I was building. When I get to Essex, I would have to get Lannah to help me find someone who can teach this to me.

I placed the pipes and the book into my bag along with the rest of the coins. There wasn’t a gate token, so I guessed that it was in the last chest. If not, then I had my work cut out for me to try to find where the gremlins ran off to with it.

I was excited as I went over to the last chest. While this level didn’t give me as much in the way of loot while I was hunting, it did give me some great stuff already. I slid the key into the lock and twisted it. I slowly started to lift the lid, and as I did, I felt something odd wrap around my left wrist.

I looked down and saw a pink tongue coming from inside the box.