The Nature dungeon’s interior remained superficially much the same as their first visit: a maze of corridors so completely covered in vines and leaves that the walls, floor, and ceiling were impossible to see. The atmosphere was what had shifted, the fresh garden scent intensified to hold an undertone of sharpness, giving the impression of deadly nightshade alongside your flowers.

Dungeons didn't carry diseases, not exactly, but the lingering poison effects some of them could enact came pretty close. Nature was particularly infamous in that regard. Even cleansing elixirs could only do so much to mitigate the effects. Aside from Control, Nature was one of the most unpleasant dungeon types at higher levels. Control attacked your mind directly, and any other dungeon just tried to destroy you. Nature liked to attack your body from the inside.

Like those biting vine flowers, Stingpetals, for instance. While at low levels they'd just flail and chomp, at higher levels their bite also deposited hungry barbs to burrow inside their victims. These Stingpetal offshoots would settle in for a long feast as they slowly ate away at your health and stamina, growing larger and stronger over several days unless removed. The acidic poison from a Spitting Slime attack was one of the least disturbing options.

Even the tiny Cactus Hare monsters managed to become horrifyingly effective at higher levels, gaining the ability to fire off their spines and move at near-incomprehensible speeds.

Fortunately, level 8 wasn't that high yet. Sure, second-threshold dungeons were something to treat seriously, but having just come from a series of level 15 and higher dungeons, this felt downright tame.

Not something to be treated lightly, certainly, but nothing insurmountable.

The halls were taller and narrower than before. Peter’s ogre, Greg, barely had to duck his head any more, but it was only possible to move single file and there was nowhere to walk without being in reach of the vines on one side or the other.

Reggie, the T-Rex, couldn't fit more than his head through, his shoulders too wide to even leave the entry room.

Bolt bounded ahead readily and Stinky skittered along after him. Despite how they’d originally met as enemies, Peter’s kalvex and spider-skunk had become close allies. Crimson, the fire snake, rode on the back of the oversized dilophosaurus, Henry. Levi wasn’t sure if it was because they genuinely liked one another, or just to match colors. Crimson seemed the sort who might choose her allies to color-coordinate.

Levi glanced up at the T-Rex standing watching the others with disappointment.

"It’s okay. You wait out here," Peter instructed.

Reggie nodded his overlarge head in agreement and sat down with a ground-shaking thump, looking forlorn.

Peter patted his nose graciously. “You can eat any enemies that get close. We’ll be back.”

Centi took point, slicing through the growth with uncanny precision, taking out anything animate while leaving the purely decorative growth to its own devices.

The first several hallways were straight and long, without any twists or branches. Occasional bursts of activity as a Cactus Hare or two jumped out from the walls to attack the procession were all that interrupted them. Levi's minions dispatched these minor attacks with ease.

Skarm and Tu moved like spirits of vengeance, disappearing into any available shadows and counter-ambushing wherever possible. More than a few of the Stingpetal Buds fell to Centi’s claws, and Bladefin's slashing swarm. Levi silently applauded his minion’s dedication.

Snip and Snap soon chose to retreat and wait in the entry room with the T-Rex. Their wingspan didn’t allow them to take off in the narrow halls, and waddling forward on their bird legs severely limited their effectiveness.

After the third Cactus Hare ambush left the pair of Roc-Lobsters with yet more injuries, Levi agreed with their protests and let them depart.

Centi was by far the best suited to these twisty passages. The mutant combined centipede was smaller than Pierce, faster and more flexible. That was a tradeoff with durability, but Levi didn't mind. Pierce was too huge for most normal encounters.

The next set of corridors were broader, and began to split and twist into the familiar maze layout. Nature dungeons were the polar opposite of Beast dungeons, almost universally preferring their cramped and close quarters over the more open terrain Beast dungeons favored.

"Split up?" Irene proposed.

They'd done as much last time, so Levi nodded agreement. He barely had to gesture to the division of forces for the team to split.

Tink took off down one passage, close behind Centi. Diego and Becca each took a passage and bounded away in opposite directions at full speed, as though it were a race. Levi wasn't sure what was going on with those two, they seemed to have become incredibly competitive since Diego joined the team and Levi had revived Becca.

Diego was a standard monster, while Becca was a plus, but Diego was practically twice her level. This made them oddly evenly matched, and the feline duo remained a force to be reckoned with—playful competition notwithstanding.

Skarm, naturally, remained with Centi, while Tu hurried off down the passage after Diego. Tu liked riding the cats, and the sabercat was much less likely to abruptly teleport out from under him than the rift cat.

While there were more than a few times when someone’s health dropped, none of them were cataclysmic.

It did take them another half hour to clear enough of the smaller halls and find their way to the boss room at the maze’s center, where they all gradually reconvened outside the entrance.

To Levi’s relief, the boss was indeed another Spitting Slime, same as the one Peter had gotten last time. The fewer times they had to deal with the guards outside this particular dungeon, the better.

It would be a straightforward fight, given the amount by which Levi’s team outleveled the dungeon.

Or so he thought.

Fighting the level 8+ Spitting Slime was a simple challenge. It fired off its deadly missiles, and Levi’s army retaliated. Even lacking half their number in those who’d gone with Gordon, Cassandra, and the others, it was more than sufficient.

Skarm and Tu sliced and slashed, Centi moved with precise speed. Bolt and Henry charged in, biting and chomping. Crackle and Bladefin swarmed.

The slime didn’t stand a chance, even without Levi slamming Bristleblade straight through its center and stabbing its spines out through the monster from within.

They brought its health down time and again as he decreased its resistance with Dismay, then turned at last to Peter.

“All yours.”

“Tame!”

Their calculations were perfect. With one cast, its name changed, tag shifting to allied.

[Slayer, level 8+]

And amid the congratulations and celebration, the room trembled.

The ceiling, which none of them had been paying attention to, writhed and dripped.

Green vivid Essence began to gather around them in a ring, wobbling and sizzling as it accumulated.

“Of course it couldn’t be that easy. Form up, quick!”

Levi took rapid stock of their team and resources. They’d taken injuries in the fight with Slayer v2, most of them hovering around 60-80% health. Crackle was down by over half its swarm, while Bladefin was almost full.

Levi took a long breath, futilely trying to stabilize his pulse.

They’d sent the bulk of the team away to hunt for Essences, when it turned out this was where they needed them most.

Too late for regrets. The Essence stood three feet tall, a solid donut around the outside of the room, ringing them in.

“Focus on breaking it down as fast as possible,” Levi ordered. “It’s going to really sting wherever it touches you, but there’s no way to win playing defence with a Nature essence. Delays will only favor its poisons. Hit it hard and don’t let up for anything.”