I felt Amy's hand on my arm before I even took a step forward and heard her say, "Wait, there are traps". When I turned, I saw beads of sweat on her brow as she struggled to detect them all. Her head turned as she scanned the room only pausing when she wasn’t sure. I made the blinker I had sent forward earlier, stay where it currently was. I didn’t want it dying needlessly. It took her over ten minutes to finish and by then she was panting as if she had just run a marathon.

I kind of felt bad for letting her struggle. This was only a ‘D’ level dungeon, and I was pretty sure I could destroy it by just summoning up a horde of monsters and letting them loose. I was debating doing just that, but the more Amy used her powers the stronger she would become. So, I waited for her to do her thing. As she moved her head, she would pause and mutter the type of trap it was and then move on to the next one. I listened and noted the ones that might cause issues. Ones like the ‘magical: teleportation’ and ‘magical: elemental’ seemed to be the more dangerous ones compared to pit traps and poisoned darts. Once she finished, we carefully avoided the dozen traps inside the room.

Since she was tired, I summoned a few more monsters and sent them forward. “Take a rest. I will scout ahead,” I said and summoned a pack of Skull Lashers, which looked like skinned dogs with bony plates running from their heads to their tails, and a Frost Basilisk, which was a six-legged lizard with giant claws.

Once they appeared before me and, after I declined linking with them, I sent them down the path. There were many sub-branches in the beginning. Some would just lead to dead ends while others would loop back or go into the forest we first saw. They rushed out and I observed what was happening around them. But as they spread out, I was forced to continuously switch between them so I could get the entire picture of what was going on.

Any traps or monsters were quickly dealt with. I would get XP announcements whenever my monsters killed something but nothing for the traps. I guess simply setting them off didn’t count as experience. I was surprised at how well it was going. Most of the traps did little to no damage to the basilisk and it progressed the fasted out of my pack of monsters.

Amy heard a few explosions and asked, “Is everything ok?”

I smiled as I answered, “Yeah, the explosion traps create a lot of noise but aren’t doing much damage. The most annoying thing is that they disorient the blinkers for a minute or two. If there are any other monsters around it might become an issue. So far, the monsters around at the time are relatively small and can’t break through their defenses. This “D” level dungeon shouldn’t be too hard to beat.”

“That’s good. I think I rested enough. Should we continue so we can get out of here sooner?”

“Sounds good to me.” We continued our idle talk as we trailed behind my summons and collected any valuable pieces off the dead.

***

A man, clad in shadows, moved alongside a pregnant woman. No matter how much light there was it never revealed his face. They walked through a forest until they stood before the dungeon core. “Remember, you are not to interfere with my followers for a year. They will have free rein. And you will help them to increase their numbers during that time.”

“Yes, I already agreed. Just help me to kill this annoying upstart.” The lady placed her hand on the right side of the crystal as she finished speaking while the man placed his on the left. There was a thump, thump noise as one half of the core began to glow brighter and brighter while a dark shadow began to engulf the other half. Once done, both people vanished as if they were never there.

***

Amy and I were enjoying our stroll through the dungeon when several message notifications appeared before my eyes. We had just made it to the pathway down to the next level when I heard several dings and read…

*Dungeon Core Upgraded*

*Dungeon Core Upgraded*

*Dungeon Core Upgraded*

*Dungeon Core Upgraded*

*Dungeon Core Upgraded*

*Dungeon Core Upgraded*

I watched as the blue veins widened and became a bit more vibrant. But even though the veins got brighter, the shadows in the area seemed to have both grown in number and size. “So much for the easy dungeon.” I muttered. “It just got a lot more difficult.” I wasn’t sure if we should retreat or go forward and decided to tell Amy what I had just seen.

“So, you’re saying that the dungeon upgraded six times? That shouldn’t be possible. Maybe the dungeon has a way to hide its true strength and that is why the death rate is so high.”

“We should retreat. We aren’t that far in and while this dungeon shouldn’t be very large, I think we should be wary on the way back."

Once I heard Amy say “I agree” I recalled all my summonables and while we waited pulled out my better armor. I had been using the stripper bunny armor my friends had made for me because the 'Armor of the Night' and 'the Cloak of Mysteries' was too distinctive, but now that that dungeon became a lot more dangerous I wasn't going to take any chances. I handed the cloak to Amy while I striped in front of her to put on the black skin tight leather. By the time my monster got back, I had finished changing and put away the veil and dematerialized my angel wings. I had even loaded up a "spark" vial on my mace. I wasn't taking any chances as I had the summonables lead the way back.

With the dungeon's upgrade, the amount of DP it was generating for having intruders inside it had increased. Before I saw notifications of ‘+1 DP’ every four to five minutes but now they came every minute. After we started back, more notifications began to appear.

*Create Deadfall Trap for 50DP in C4 (Yes, No)*

*Summon 2x Bile Squirrels for 40DP in G1 (Yes, No)*

By the time we got halfway, I got…

*Create 4x Ice Elemental Traps for 80DP at entrance (Yes, No)*

*Summon 2x Stranglers for 60DP in G7 (Yes, No)*

*+6 Bile Squirrels*

*Move two Bile Squirrels to C1*

*Move two Bile Squirrels to C5*

*Move two Bile Squirrels to C7*

The messages kept coming. The dungeon was spending more than it was earning and placing traps in a lot of areas. But without knowing where the coded locations were, we had to slow down for safety. The dungeon was placing traps or critters all over the place and our slower pace allowed the dungeon to collect even more DP and create more traps or summon more things. What was strange was that anything living thing it summoned would keep increasing in numbers. The Bile Squirrels for example started with two, then got another six, then twenty-four, thirty-six and the final one was fifty-four. The stranglers had a slower growth and were only up to six at the moment but with them summoning more and more things it didn’t take a genius to know where this was going. If the monsters were the only things ahead, I wouldn’t be too concerned because I had some pretty nasty monsters of my own. But there were now over two dozen traps and all their names sounded deadlier than the ones we saw coming in. And while I might be able to deal with the one called ‘Poison Field’, I was not too sure about ‘Vorpal Alley’ or ‘The Chopping Block’.

*Deadfall Trap Activated*

*Level 3 Mage from party one killed, 70DP earned*

A few minutes passed before I got a notification indicating that a ‘teleportation array’ trap was set off followed by

*Level 4 Warrior from party 1 killed by Tainted Spirits, 100DP earned*

*Level 5 Warrior from party 1 killed by Famished Rootlets, 200DP earned*

*Level 2 Priest from party one killed by Stranglers, 30DP earned*

I wasn’t sure how many members team one had, but losing four all at once had to weaken them to the point of no return. The fact that they all died to different monsters gave me the impression that they weren’t teleported to the same place. The dungeon had collected four hundred dungeon points from their deaths. I knew there was only one more group other than ours and I wasn’t sure they were going to make it since they were already on floor three. The only bright side was that when the people died, the DP that the dungeon was collecting slowed down a little.

It had taken us a couple of hours to get to the second-floor entrance. But even after four hours, we were still only a quarter of way to the exit. Amy had tried to detect the traps on the way back but as their levels increased so did the difficulty of spotting them. I kept losing my monsters in interesting ways. And, even if she did manage to spot them, critters would jump out of the shadows and set them off whenever we got too close. More than once a bile squirrel or rotting wolves would leap out and set off a trap that we were near, so we had to keep our guard up.

The whole process was nerve wracking and time consuming. My fastest summoning still took five minutes and in that gap of time the dungeon would send hordes of the bile squirrels that would try and swarm over us. They appeared out of the shadows. One minute nothing but the traps and oppressive shadows; the next, fifty to sixty squirrels appeared and rushed at anything close. They would then blow up into a gooey, putrid mess. At the slightest touch of the goo, it would poison us and I would have to cast a detoxification spell to cleanse it.

The closer to the exit we got, the more traps we encountered and as a result, the more we were attacked. By the time we got halfway back, I finally turned to Amy and said, “We need a different plan.”

“Any ideas?”

“Yes, but it’s risky.” She just raised an eyebrow so I continued, “They are bogging us down with numbers so I can summon even more but the more I summon the harder it is to control them.”

She just gave me a simple reply of “I trust you.”

“Ok, stand near me. We’ll guard each other in case anything goes wrong.” With that I started to cast. I focused and pushed all the power I could muster into this summons. It needed to work, for Amy. To keep her safe, I would make this work. I felt the crystal inside me vibrate and pulse. It was slow at first but as it sped up it felt like I had a vibrator nestled in my leather pants. I found it harder and harder to stay focused. I bit my tongue and used that pain to remain calm. I could taste the blood in my mouth as my spell finished. I opened my mouth and screamed “Chittering Devils” and thousands of amber portals appeared.

*Insufficient DP to Link Chittering Devils*

It began raining tiny red devils. They filled the area and the ground soon took on the appearance of a undulating bloody sea. I felt as if my mind was going to break under the pressure of holding them in place. My knees went weak and I felt Amy holding me up as my body went limp. “G.. Go to the exit. Kill anything.. in .. your.. waaay.” I issued the order but thinking became hard and I had to pause to make sure I was saying the right thing. Their desire to eat our flesh invaded my mind. Thousands demanded it, pushing against my determination, making it hard not to simply give in. It was Amy’s warm embrace that strengthened my resolve. I wasn't alone and silently forced them to run forward.

I wouldn’t let them eat my friend. I wouldn’t. I kept repeating that like a mantra as they set off trap after trap and fought through the dungeons horde of monsters that was in our way. Amy directed me as we followed behind the carnage the tiny devils caused. As their numbers dwindled, the pressure in my mind became easier to manage. But my magical energy had dipped drastically. Part of it was from from maintaining the summons but as my minions fought, I occasionally also had to cast a detoxifying spells because a squirrel or two got past the devils. It was only the magnified mana-regeneration that the dungeon gave me that enabled me to cast at all.

Notifications rang in my ear as I was half-carried behind the horde. Most notified me that I received XP and DP from killing the dungeon monsters, but it also got DP from killing my summons. By the time we got to the entrance, there weren’t many Chittering Devils left but since they killed so many things, I was really close to reaching level nine and the eighty-eight dungeon points I had was now over four-hundred.

Amy huddled close to me near the entrance, and her voice whispered in my ear, “there are over a dozen traps set up and those were just the ones I can see.” I nodded. I was pretty sure I could get us out of here, but I also wanted to try and save those that were on floor three. I just wasn’t sure if that was the right call. They were the only remaining people in the dungeon, other than us, and were currently fighting their way back up and after losing a few people seemed to be struggling. If I could manage to meet up, we might all be able to survive this disaster. Something I was doubtful of, considering I was struggling to get to the exit that was much closer to us than they were. The only reason Amy and I weren’t already dead was because of my stat boosts for being inside the dungeon.

“You’re sure?” I asked.

“Yes, there are dozens of traps blocking the exit, but I can’t tell what kind.”

“I understand.” I made my decision and continued, “I will clear the way. Once I do, go back to Marge’s. I am going to try and save the last group that’s still in here.” I didn’t wait for her to argue. I could see she didn’t want to leave, so I sent all my summonables in waves to activate the traps. Devils, blinkers, and even the basilisk… they all died; from becoming frozen blocks to being chopped into pieces, they all died. I had to summon more to make sure the path was clear. It got some DP from killing them but not as much as it spent to create those traps. “Go, before it creates more traps. I should be fine.” I couldn’t risk losing her for my selfish desire to help others. I breathed a sigh of relief as she exited the dungeon. I didn’t see her tears but heard her voice crack as she wished me luck right before she disappeared.

I turned and looked toward the forest. From the notifications, that was probably the way they were. The decision I faced was which path to take. The messages I was receiving about the other group were that they were inside a forest on level two. I knew the way down from the cavern side but wasn’t sure if the aspects of the dungeon would link up down there like they did on this floor.

They could be completely separate and force the groups exploring to traverse each side to gather clues or items that would be needed later to proceed to the lower floors. I needed to make a choice. Should I could stick with what I knew or take a risk? If I was lucky, I might bypass a lot of danger since we cleared a path coming here. The dungeon either didn’t care that I turned back or perhaps it didn’t expect it because the traps we just fought through weren't reactivated. The disadvantage was that I might miss the other group completely or waste time they desperately needed, even if the two sides linked up. Or I should go directly into the forest. It was the most likely path they followed and had the highest likelihood of me finding them. I weighed my options and finally decided and ran down a path that led to the forest. Unlike Amy I couldn’t detect traps and didn’t think I would have any luck with traps and suicidal exploding squirrels.