It wasn't the most flashy or fun part of a dungeon delve, but Fife knew that the "fun" stuff only came after the boring stuff was done. "You know, Trav has a great saying for this kind of thing. He calls this yard trash. Literally, rubbish you have to deal with to get to your destination. He's got a lot of great words."

Privately, Felna wondered if Fife would be less talky if she wasn't fighting. They'd been fighting for the better part of nine hours by her own estimation, and not once had either kobold or the centaur faltered or acted less than completely aware of their situations. She waited for Ludmiller to return (and speak so she knew they were present) before calling to her. "Luddy, we need a break."

Blinking in surprise, Ludmiller had to remind herself that no matter what, she didn't get tired anymore. "Right. Sorry. There's a bit of an advantage to being a kobold."

"At least a part of it is being linked to a dungeon. Now that I think about it, the times I've used my spells on dungeons in the past made it a bit easier to keep working past my limits. I wonder if that's related?" Felna, even now, could feel Travis' influence draining her fatigue, and the impact on her magic was absolutely astounding. "Regardless, we need a break."

"There's a blind tunnel this way. We can set up at the end of it and ward it." Ludmiller jutted her thumb in the direction of a tunnel, then remembered she needed to give a firm direction. "Second tunnel on your left. There's a fork halfway down it, take the right."

Fife took the turns described and spotted the end of the dungeon tunnel. "Okay. Get in there. I take it one of you has a Fortify Stone spell?" She looked among the casters and Nathaniel nodded. "Great. That'll help stop any surprises."

"We all have it. We don't like accidents in these kinds of places." Stratus shuddered at the memory of having a dungeon dig into what should have been a safe place. "Only need to live through that once, thank you very much."

Tom lowered his head at that. "When I was starting, our whole party got ambushed and given an express ride home like that. Whenever someone new to the business asks what spells they need to acquire, I tell them some damage spells and Fortify Stone."

Given everyone in her party were casters, Ogmera was glad to have such a sensible group assembled. "Watches?"

"Don't bother." Fife stretched and rolled her shoulders. "I'll take 'em all. I don't need sleep, but getting a day or so each week is nice. If we spend that long in here, we'll take a day where you all watch and let me rest."

"Oh no. You don't get to have all the fun. Half and half," Ludmiller said. "We don't have to push ourselves with this."

Grunting, Fife nodded. "Okay. I'll take first, you take second. Sleep close. If something goes wrong, you'll be the first I wake."

"Have you noticed something?" Ludmiller asked, settling down to crouch beside Fife, watching out into the darkness with the light of the little camp behind her. "There are no lizards or anything like that in here."

Freezing where she stood, Fife looked around and only said, "Huh."

"What does that mean?" Ogmera asked.

"Trav sees three ways," Fife explained. "He sees and hears anything in his heart room, he sees and hears through us, when we're in the dungeon, and he can see through the lizards."

Huntress put the facts together. "So they can't see where we are?"

"Maybe. Either the dungeon can see everywhere anyway, which I doubt since it hasn't figured out my stealth yet, or it will be blind until a goblin makes contact with us." More of the situation seemed to unfold for Ludmiller. "And maybe not even then. Have you noticed that we haven't been mobbed by more than one floor of goblins at a time? What if the dungeon can't see with them at all?"

"That would definitely take one worry out of this. If the dungeon can't see through its minions, and the minions themselves aren't that smart, what about using an illusion spell to make the tunnel look like it ends sooner, or even get a mind-mage to put something like a nothing interesting ward up." Tom liked the idea of the latter, mostly because such were highly efficient from his way of thinking.

"Do you always do this?" Huntress asked, reaching back and rubbing her left forequarter that wouldn't stop twitching under her armor.

Fife didn't look back, but still asked, "Gossiping?"

"No, she means coming up with all these ideas and theories." Ogmera pulled out some dried bread, murmured a quick Create Water spell, and set about trying to make the tack more edible with some portable soup from her pack. "It's a good way to unwind. Helps you get your mind off the fact we're in one of the most hostile places in the world. It's also good to talk these things through before we forget the details and while we can still test them."

That led Huntress to another question. "Oh. When you talk about spells and magician types, does that limit who can do what kinds of magic?"

"Well," Stratus said, chuckling a little, "yes and no. A wizard can cast any kind of magic he puts the time and coin into learning. With a scroll or spellbook, that becomes even easier. Sorcerers are limited to spells they have discovered themselves, but their magic can create new and unseen-before magic. A cleric is to a wizard as a shaman is to a sorcerer." He nodded toward Ogmera, Felna, and Nathaniel.

Ogmera cleared her throat to cut in. "None are better than another, we all work in a different manner. Some spells can be learned by sorcerers and shamans, but they need another of their type to teach it."

Looking at Tom, Huntress asked, "So, if those spells would be helpful, why don't you just learn all of them?"

"Price. Time. I could get the cheaper versions, and it would take a long time, but there are things I'd rather be doing."

"Are the expensive ones reusable?" When Tom nodded, Huntress went on. "So why not get Travis to buy them and then all of you could learn the spells?"

Tom's mouth opened to reply that no one could afford to be so philanthropic, then his brain froze as he realized that Travis had already been as much, and from what he'd heard from Felna regarding the plans Travis made, would be far more.

"Thank her for the idea, Tom," Stratus said.

Snapping his mouth closed and managing a chuckle, he nodded. "I'll bring it up with Miss Katelyn and Travis when we return. Thank you for pointing out the not-so-obvious."

Blushing a little at the compliment, Huntress pushed on with her questions. "Are there any spells for archery?"

"That's more my thing," Ogmera said, "or, rather, our thing." She gestured to Felna and Nathaniel. "There are some that have worked to learn magic to accompany their archery, as well as some that learn archery to accompany their magic."

Felna cleared her throat and rolled her eyes at Ogmera until the shaman stopped. "She wants to know the spells, not the life-history of everyone who has been within ten feet of a bow." Trying to ignore the way Ogmera poked her tongue out, Felna went on. "The spells pertaining to archery fit into several fields. Ones that make your arrow do magical things, ones that make it hit harder, ones that ensure it hits, ones that similarly enchant a bow, and finally ones that can be cast on a quiver.

"For arrow effects, there are poison, elemental, chemical, and more esoteric things. Believe it or not, I have seen arrows that heal. They combined those with an enchantment on their arrow to make it not hit physically as hard, and could heal at great distances.

"Bow enchanting is harder, and you'd need to learn enchanting as a whole art, though I understand Luddy's daggers were enchanted simply by becoming a dungeon's floor boss?"

Ludmiller nodded, her back to the group so she wouldn't ruin her vision. "Pen also had her swords enchant whenever she picked them up. It was really cool—until she couldn't hold them anymore."

That was something that had confused Nathaniel. "I had been wondering why she didn't have them. She should get some lances, though, for when she's flying. I imagine having a dragon throw an adamantine lance at you would hurt. Though, for her they would be dart sized."

"Even the weight of them would make them impressive. She would be able to just drop them, with no throwing, and they'd still do—" Fife froze, her brain ticking over incredibly fast. "Bombs. Dammit, I'm an idiot. Why doesn't she carry runes or other explosives?"

"Don't be silly. The problem with runes, now, is that we can't use them where people will be in the dungeon. Do you want to explain to Travis why we blew up a delegation?" Ludmiller asked.

"Ahem." Tom managed to get their attention, but could only tell by how the pair had gone quiet. "You can select the trigger and intensity with runes. If the trigger is goblin—and you keep that young hellion Mixie away from them—and the intensity is set low enough, you could have them as a trigger that does not do much more than pop, to ignite a keg of powder."

"We don't have much in the way of huge armies to fight anymore. That's the point of doing this—we keep the numbers down here and don't have to worry about a goblin army on our doorstep." Despite not needing sleep, Fife yawned and settled her mind to the dull-but-necessary task of watching for danger. "Wake up in five?"

"You want us to sleep-in, in a dungeon?" Felna asked.

"Why not. No reason an extra few hours each day we're in here is going to be a problem. This is a long-haul, after all, not a sprint."

Huntress was having trouble getting settled. The twitch in her muscles had moved around, seemingly dancing all over her body in defiance of her efforts at getting used to the armor. She would have removed it, but it wasn't so uncomfortable she couldn't put up with it, and it took someone's help putting it on. So she closed her eyes and tried to imagine how happy her home was that it was getting a pile of resources from her work.

Waking up, Huntress looked around. At first she was worried. She didn't know where she was, how long she'd slept, or the humans nearby. Then memories started to fill in answers and she let out of a soft sigh. "We're—"

"Shhh. There's a goblin down the tunnel. Fife is keeping watch while Ludmiller investigates. This is going to be a test of our theory that the dungeon can't see through its minions."

Stratus' hand on her mouth, and soft words in her ear, brought her worry and excitement in equal measure. She knew her home could see everywhere within itself all the time, and Travis could only see particular places, but this would be a big advantage if they could ensure that no survivors escaped their fights. She nodded.

There was barely even the sound of struggle before Ludmiller and Fife returned, the latter cleaning her sword. "If they're able to see through their minions, then we will have company soon. If not, we have a tense hour of waiting and some of the best news ever," Fife said.

Huntress was patient. She realized it was probably down to her origin and name, but she liked to think she had spent enough time waiting for Fife to make sense in the past to have learned the virtue on her own. So, with the others, she waited.

"I think that proves the point," Fife said after some time. "An hour with no response means the dungeon can't see through its minions."

Ogmera nodded along, but added, "Or it cannot speak to them. Or it can't understand where things are within it."

Fife just stared at Ogmera for ten seconds before grunting and rising to her full height. "Let's get back to work."

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This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.