Mr. Stansible stashes the potion away, “Now let us continue on our way. The next floor is where we might actually start finding new stuff. Though I guess technically this potion thing might be new as well.”

Everyone else in the party is fine with this, and they head through the portal. On the other side Jamie frowns, “I can feel some kobold minds above and in front of us and right below us is a collection of minds that nearly aren’t. It isn’t like the mind of a young animal or child though. Rather, there just isn’t much of a mind and no chance of more being there. Really freaky if I’m going to be honest. I have sensed some minds at a similar level, but none of them feel so close to being an actual person like mind yet not. They are deep in the uncanny valley for minds. Oh, and there are some animals with the kobolds, can’t forget that.”

Mr. Stansible nods, “Okay, that means we know where one of the so-called mining areas is located. Now we just need to figure out how to get there. With a completely random floor that could take a while. Plus, it would be nice to find either the core or the portal to the next floor if it has gotten that far. Even the top people in the settlement outside of this place haven’t done that yet.”

The lady with an axe laughs, “While I don’t doubt them, I also suspect that has more to do with them not having much of a chance to delve this floor yet. As a whole they all seem strong, but they also don’t seem to have all that much time to come down here. There might not be literal paperwork to do, but there sure is enough other stuff. Back home enough other people are around that every task has at least one or two people capable of doing it. Here? They don’t even have a hundred people, hell depending on if they are hiding anyone from us or not they might not even have fifty people.”

Jamie shrugs, “If they are hiding people it isn’t in the settlement itself. Though speaking of settlement, they really need to figure out a name for the place. It isn’t like they are the only settlement in the area! If they don’t get around to it soon, they might end up with a name pushed on them from outside influences. While I don’t plan to give them a nickname most other people aren’t going to be so kind. Even if they don’t get a true nickname, that won’t stop them from being The Dungeon Settlement or some such.”

Mr. Stansible sighs, “That is annoying but neither here nor there for us. We spent a good bit of time jawing away, so everyone should be rested. Now get a move one, we don’t have the time or supplies to be staying in a safe room for hours.”

There is a bit of light hearted grumbling from the two martial arts guys, but soon enough the group has moved forward into the next room. This room is completely empty except for a stairway downward. Mr. Stansible sees this and shrugs, “I guess we aren’t lucky with those kobolds.”

The room below is empty as well, but there are two ways forward this time. One is literally forward, and the other is back, taking them into a room that would be directly under the entrance.

Jamie looks to the right with a frown, “Okay, I now sense some more of those semi-minds right over there. This wasn’t really a problem in previous floors, but I think the dungeon natively blocks my psionic powers in interesting ways. Feels like I can only sense everything that is directly next to our current room and in those rooms within a certain number of rooms. It was sort of a thing in the previous floors. Just not that obvious though because of the floor designs. Even though they did circle around themselves a little, it only felt natural to sense as far as I did.”

“I think we should head forward and try to find the connection to the room to our right. If anything, it will give us a feel for what my detection range is. Plus we don’t know what is above the rooms in that direction so the chance of a way up isn’t low. Going the other way might get us to a fight right away, but at the same time the entrance will be directly above us and we don’t know if it connects to anything else.”

Mr. Stansible nods, “Going forward does give us a better chance of reaching the kobolds. Plus, if you are only limited by how many rooms are in between us and the monsters that would mean the way to the kobolds is close by. If anything, we can go back once we find the monsters you detected to the right if there isn’t a way up. Now keep the chatter down, they might not be smart but that doesn’t mean they can not hear us.”

Jamie shrugs at this as the group moves into the room in front of them. There they find two ways out. To the front once again and another to the right. In front of them they can see that the next room has a staircase up, while to the right is a more hallway shaped room.

The staircase is tempting, but they had already agreed to check out the minds Jamie had detected so the group heads into the room to their right. Once they have entered the room, the group doesn’t even stop to check what is down the way on the left as they are focused once again ongoing right.

This brings them into a decent sized room with a puddle in the center, and around that puddle are many small mushrooms. Jamie gestures towards the mushrooms and nods.

Mr. Stansible shrugs. They had already known the identity of the monsters on the lower sections, so only seeing a bunch of mushrooms was to be expected. Though since they aren’t moving to attack right away, that gives him a chance to take them out with a well placed spell. With everyone backed out of the room, he takes some time to charge up his spell.

Then with the last few syllables of his spell hanging in the air a large beam of light falls from the ceiling onto the mushroom patch. Right away the sprouts that had camouflaged themselves start screaming and attempt to run away from the light. Bad news for them though, myconids are weak to light, especially the sprouts. The intense light of justice melts through the poor sprouts in no time at all, leaving a room empty of any standing mushrooms.

Mr. Stansible nods, “A little costly to cast that. I do not think I could do it too many more times, but boy is it effective. I guess with this we can head back to the staircase we saw. I am quite interested in if there really is a refilling ore mine in here.”

The lady with an axe rolls her eyes, “You know there is. They didn’t lie about the situation, and it was clearly stated that the ore comes back. And even if it didn’t, the monsters in the area with the mine drop the stuff as well. This floor is a one stop shop bronze factory.”

Mr. Stansible shrugs, “While they did not lie, they also have not been down here much. The ore they showed me was real and had a high concentration of metal in it but remember, the floor shuffles itself. They might not have been seeing a refilled mine, instead they might have only been finding new mining areas. It is possible that once we reach the kobolds, it is going to be an area that has already been mined out.”

The lady shakes her head, “As I said, it doesn’t even matter if there isn’t an actual mine for the stuff as long as the monsters drop it.”

Mr. Stansible laughs, “There very much is a difference. If this floor has a respawning mine, that means we can use it to train someone with the mining skill. That is not too important for the tin and copper we can find here. On the other hand, I very much do not want to waste any of the natural resources we might find outside of a dungeon. This is not the only place with ore after all. Now let us head back to that staircase. We are burning daylight.”

The lady rolls her eyes again but otherwise keeps silent as the group does a little bit of backtracking. They arrive at the room with the staircase and Jamie takes a look up through the hole in the ceiling. “Well, I can’t feel anything up there. Though that isn’t a certain thing depending on how much of a mind the plant monster has.”

The guy with brass knuckles shakes his head, “It isn’t a regular plant. Those things are plant monsters. Sure maybe if it was more in line with one of those passive hunters like a honeydew then it might be mindless. These strangle vine things? They’re mobile creatures that plan ambushes. I’m going to head and see what there is to see.” And the guy climbs up the staircase.

Everyone else in the party is a bit worried about this, so follow soon behind him. Of course since he didn’t end up screaming for help there isn’t anything there. The guy is just looking around the room that once again only has an exit to the front.

Seeing this, Mr. Stansible sighs, “I guess we aren’t all that close to the kobolds in this direction. We should probably head back and check the other direction.”

The guy shakes his head, “We can at least take a look into the next room. There could be a staircase just off to the side.”

Jamie shrugs, “I can still sense the kobolds except now they are above and behind us so that is possible.”

Then without waiting for Mr. Stansible’s answer, the guy with brass knuckles sticks his head through into the next room. And yonk. A vine drops down, wraps around his neck, and pulls him up out of view.

Very unfortunate to be caught by an assassin vine like that as when the group tries to enter the next room to help him, the vine can keep them out. Mr. Stansible can only shake his head at this and stand back while preparing a spell.

The lady with her axe on the other hand makes the most headway into the next room. With a few chops she can clear enough vines that she can get into the room as well, followed shortly behind by the other guy and the dude with a spear.

Jamie on the other hand just stands back and shakes his head. Without a mind, there isn’t much he can do at the moment. Though it does make him re-prioritize his future training. Up till now he had focused on his ability to affect minds. While that is what he does best. He also has a slight bit of telekinesis as well which would have helped in this situation.

The three melee fighters try their best with the lady being the stand out. In the end though it takes Mr. Stansible finishing his spell for the fight to end. Luckily his area of effect spell doesn’t do friendly fire or it would have been much harder for him.

Though the group soon finds out that it wouldn’t have mattered. Even with his body being reinforced by higher stats, the guy with brass knuckles was still weak to having his neck snapped. Not that he had put any points into constitution, having instead focused on agility and strength. Though constitution might not have saved him by itself as a broken neck is still broken. Rather, if he had put enough points to hit 20 to 25, then human’s innate regeneration would have kicked in and allowed him to survive long enough to be brought to a healer.

Akhier

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