"Similar layout, and similar enemies."  Baris sat down and took a short rest.  "One more level too.  Got a few skill points for my hammer skill to use.  Hm, I should use magic more on the next floor."

"These advanced goblins are going to start changing by the third or fourth.  Either they will have ranged forces along with melee, or a shaman, or they will be kobolds."  Alea said as she chewed on some jerky.  "This isn't that bad, but no where near as good as fresh."

"Can't go to a restaurant and order takeout, Alea.  Make due."  He sighed.  "What I wouldn't give for a burger."

"A burger?  What's that?"

"Ground up meat, spiced, roasted into a patty, placed between two slices of bread, with cheese.  You may not like your meat cooked, but you might enjoy a burger.  They can be made so many ways.  Tender, juicy, full of flavor, with hot spices or just flavors.  Sigh.  Maybe I'll make a meat grinder some day."  She listened to him, and frowned slightly.

"I've never heard of these foods before.  The humans don't make them, and don't serve them at the inns."  She said.

"Some of these foods are new, while locals only serve what they brought with them from the other world.  Little innovation as they are busy surviving.  Blood sausage is something from across the sea from where I used to live.  A way to use all the meat from an animal."  He said quietly.

"That still doesn't sound like any human I've heard of.  They waste a lot."  She said with a frown on her lovely face.  Baris had to admit it to himself, these beings were worthy of being called elves.  They were beautiful, but did not possess the slender attractiveness that other novels proclaimed them to have.

"Humans are many, and have different ways everywhere.  A few centuries ago, food was difficult to get, so most of their time was spent growing, tending, or preserving food."  Mostly, Baris talked about the things he wanted to do later in life.  Farming, and tending to animals.  "Whether it was wild, farmed, or hunted, Humans did not waste food.  They became wasteful when it became plentiful.  Take your 'time' for instance."  She frowned.

"My time?"

"You have plenty of it.  You spend your time in the guild and not out hunting.  Why?  You have coin, so you can spend it to buy wasted xp.  The less you have of something, the more meaning it has, and the less you waste of it."  Baris stood up.

"Come.  You have plenty of goblins to kill, and I have more levels to climb.  Hopefully, by the time this dungeon dies, you'll be over level twenty five, and your battle skills will harden."  He walked ahead of her and headed to the stairs that led deeper into the dungeon.

"I have no doubt that my skills will harden.  Like something else that threatens to harden every time you talk to me like that."  She growled low in her throat.

"You have no idea how painful it will be for you to keep stirring my lust like this, Baris."  She licked her lips and shivered.

"I have to hold back until I get home or I'll split this poor bastard open like an ax does to firewood."

 

* * *

 

"Hm, even though we've gone down to the third floor, everything seems to line up perfectly with the floor above.  Three branches, one main, two side rooms off one main room, and a stair down.  Get ready.  My scans indicate that there are only eighty this time.  A bit of variation means --"  Baris said firmly.

"Different set ups.  Magic.  Let's go with magic and spare our stamina unless we need to."  She said and consulted her own hostile detection.  "According to what I see, there are still ten in each corridor, but something is off.  There are some I can't see their labels."

"Then it's a variant you haven't met in battle yet."  Baris said.  "My scans are more detailed.  Six advanced goblins in each corridor, and four archers.  The archers are right at the doors, which means they are out of range."

"Well, that bites.  What can we do then?"  She asked.  She hadn't fought in a dungeon in decades.

"Simple.  Aggro."  He saw her blank look.  "It means to draw aggression.  We'll aim at the ones in the corridor to our front.  Retreat up to the stairs, and possibly in behind the door.  Unless they have a shaman scan for them, they will be sitting ducks for us.  I'll stand in view of the door, while you slice and dice from the side."

"Sounds decent.  How can I retreat if necessary?"  She asked.  He pulled a rope of the bag he always kept nearby.  She knew what he wanted right away.  The stairs were open, and doubled back on itself.  With this rope, she could climb up between the landings, and if she was quick enough, she could stay ahead of her enemies.

"Tie it off up top, and get ready to climb.  You have healing magic, and so do I.  You'll live.  If you can get out of there when you draw their attention, I'll freeze the bastards and clean them up."  He stopped and pinned her with a stare.

"What?"

"Remember our last plan?"  He asked.

"Yeah, it failed."

"Which is typical when facing an enemy.  Enemies don't do what you want them to.  Adjust your strategy to either attack when you didn't plan on attacking, but the opportunity presents itself, or we'll regret it."  She nodded.

"Tactics, and strategy.  I have never used them enough as I've not been in battle enough.  I'll do as you say."  Baris was glad she did say that.  The opportunity came much faster then they expected.

"They advanced!"  He yelled, and they held out their hands.  From that moment on, it was total chaos, or as he once read, it was simply a battle, as that is what battles resemble.  Chaos.

They walked near to the intersection, but the melee fighters had walked to the junction as part of a patrol.  Both sides were surprised, but before the goblins could react, both Baris and Alea sent out a wave of flames that engulfed the advanced goblins, and the archers.  With wind gusts pushing the flames on, the flames washed into the other corridors, and near to twenty different goblins died in that attack alone.

"RETREAT!"  Baris said and backed away quickly.  They got back to the stairs, and a lot more then the ones in the corridors flooded out.

They flooded the corridors with flame magic again, and more wind gusts.  Arrows flew passed them, and one hit him in the belly.  He didn't lose focus, but pulled it out casually, just in case it was poisoned.

"ADVANCE!"  Once the flames died down, and no more arrows came out, they advanced down the corridors that were filled with blackened bodies.  He cast cleanse on himself and nodded.  It cleaned out the wound so first aid could fix it.  He didn't detect any poison.

"LEFT!"  They moved to the left room, flooded it with flames, and killed the ones inside.  They moved to the right and killed the ones there with flames.

"Last room."  Baris grit his teeth, but as some flames came at them from the entrance, he held up his hand.

"SNOW!  GUST!"  Both cast the same magic, turned the flames into barely a warm warmth, and ran into the room.  "Get the shaman while I kill these shrimp!"  He called out.

"On it!"  She dashed forward, as she was much faster than Baris, and took the head off the shaman.  She turned and watched as Baris rampaged and turned the four melee fighters into a pile of goo.

"Scout first, then we'll sit.  Did you level up?"  He asked casually.

"No, but I'm half way there.  I'll be at the twenty fourth level by the end of the next floor.  I will surpass twenty five in this dungeon."  She growled.

"Don't get too excited, Alea."  He said in a somber tone.  "Once we destroy this place, you should head back and tend to your mare.  If you can, send someone to Steepbell to let me know where the next dungeon is located.  And bring some food for me.  We'll be out of jerky before I get there."  He rolled his eyes.

"How were you to know that feeding an elf is an arduous task when they are my size?"  she chuckled.

"I don't regret it, but if Shaala or your sister assists me in the next dungeon, we'll need a lot more food."  He said after they scouted the floor out and made sure there were no other spawns.

"The meat in these crates are spoiled, and turned.  The goblins are like rats, and don't care what they eat."  He snarled.  "I hate rats."

"I'll see if I can get Zennie to help us, or at least Shaala.  She's still quite young, and needs to up her levels if she's going to protect those two precious fairies of hers."  Her face fell.  "Those girls are going to be so upset to know their home is spoiled like it is."

"I know."  He said quietly.  "It's going to take me a few years to get the grove into good shape again, but I'm not letting some fucking overgrown snot green rats destroy such a beautiful place forever!  I'll learn how to cleanse the source, wash away the muck and gore, or burn it away.  I'll place a shrine to Nuella here as well.  Scales would be nice."  Alea looked at the human quietly while she let her manna regenerate, and quietly sipped at the water that flowed from the upper levels through a small channel.

"There are many goddesses.  Ethys, the goddess of mortality is her closest sister."

"She's not doing a good job, from what I can see.  If she's responsible for mortality, she's seriously got an attention problem.  War and battle are constant.  One needs battle to remain strong, to protect the balance.  I wonder who the battle goddess is."

He didn't see a gleam in Alea's eyes, nor a shadow pass over her as though someone else looked out through her eyes.

He had the attention of someone else now.