After a moment’s rest the party gathers back up and continues down the vine room. Forewarned is forearmed and so they easily spot the next vine assassin. What they almost don’t spot are the three little goats hidden nearby. Though almost in this case just means Jan being splattered by goat's blood as Sammy spins around and decapitates it before it can charge.
At the back of the party Ruby waves her hand behind her and a ribbon of fire streams out behind her. Taking care of two more goats in a much cleaner fashion. Honestly, it looks like the only person truly taken by surprise is Jan. The shared look when her back is turned wouldn’t disabuse any onlookers from this notion either.
Two more pieces of meat go into Jack’s pack and the group continues on past the second assassin vine. Jan grumbles a bit about how they should, “just kill the thing”, but the others disagree with her opinion.
As Sammy puts it, “we’re only here to check the place out and get some food. A bunch of grapes isn’t worth the risk.” And so they make it to the first room in goat row. At least that is what the previous group had called it. Nevermind that from a certain gem's point of view it would be more appropriate to call it a column, goat row it was.
The first room only has a couple of goats which they kill easily enough and they store away another bit of meat. Then Sammy gets rammed in the back as the goat from the next room charges in. She isn’t hurt much except for her pride. “Stupid gosh darn grarr damn goat! Stay in your own room yah walking piece of dinnah.” And she rounds on it, dropping her sword and shield, then grabs the goat by its neck. “Now yah going to be a nice goat and take a little nap fah all time.” She flexes her hands and with a sickening snap the goat flops over.
Jack leans back with his eyes opening wide and whistles, “well now, overreacting much? It’s just a goat like any other.”
Ruby cuffs him on the back of the head, “She doesn’t look very happy so if I were you I would zip it. We don’t want to have to explain how you got a black eye because last time I checked, this dungeon doesn’t seem to have any stairs to fall down.”
Sammy shakes her head and snaps out of it, “That’s not a funny joke Ruby. I knew someone that had a friend who kept falling down the stairs and it isn’t a laughing matter. As for the goat? Just took me by surprise and I reacted a little harshly. We were going to kill it anyway.”
Jan stands off to the side and rolls her eyes. “Idiots, everyone get back on your feet so we can finish this up as soon as possible. At this point I just want out of here.”
The rest of the group ignores her complaint as they get themselves back under control first before continuing. Once they do move on, they find the next room empty. Jack shrugs at this discovery, “well it was to be expected. Though the fact the goat from here came and attacked us differs from the report. When Jim and the weaklings came through here, it had just cowered in the corner waiting to die.”
Ruby nods, “just another thing to report when we get out. Who knows, maybe the goats in all four rooms can move around a little.”
Sammy agrees with this idea but instead of adding to the conversation heads off to the next room. Jack just shakes his head, “you know we should stick together?”
In the next room they can hear the fight starting as she yells back, “Well then what are you doing back there? Come on over, got some more fun ahead!” Of course by the time everyone has reached the next room both goats have already died.
“Lucky me!” Sammy smiles, “both my goats here dropped a piece of meat. Maybe I should just solo the rest of this dungeon?”
Jack snorts, “You and I both know the next room should have three goats in it and you can’t manage that many enemies at once, even if they are just goats. If you want, though, we can let you try. After all Jan hasn’t wanted to do anything yet so a real injury might force some magic to happen.”
Jan glares at him, “Nothing has needed my assistance yet!”
Sammy puts her hands on her hips, “Oh yeah? I am going to have some serious bruising if I don’t see one of our other two healers. Plus you would think that any excuse to use your skills would be appreciated. Levels are nice and all but without the skills and paths to back it up the number is hollow.”
Jan turns her glare on Sammy, “Don’t tell me how to live my life! I had enough of that before this mess and I won’t deal with it now.”
Ruby comes between them, “woah now! She isn’t trying to order you around but her point still stands. Skills are the key to a good life now.”
Jan just clams up and turns away from the group in a huff. Tired of the nonsense Sammy grabs Jack and drags him into the next room. The three goats there hardly stand a chance with her tanking the hits and Jack squashing them one by one.
“Well, that’s sad,’’ Jack mutters, “only one piece of meat from these three goats gruff.”
Sammy shrugs, “random drops are random. The kobolds might be our best chance for anything fancy though I do have to wonder where the rabbits are.”
Ruby shakes her head, “who knows. The previous group only found them in the first room so maybe they were just critters from outside.”
Jan humphs, “with our luck that probably is what happened or they lied. Don’t trust them as far as I can throw them.”
Sammy raises an eyebrow, “well I can throw them pretty far nowadays so I trust them. No reason for them to lie about something like that. The goats are already enough to get our attention. Adding on some rabbits wouldn’t have changed much. Plus they had the meat in nice little chunks just like the dungeon is dropping the goat meat.”
Jack nods, “If anything the condition the meat was in is enough of a tipoff. We might have just gotten unlucky. Maybe the rabbits roamed around and happened to be in the entrance room when the others showed up. I bet there are probably some rabbit burrows hidden around that they all have retreated to. We aren’t exactly sneaking around after all.”
Jan rolls her eyes, “well then we can just send in all our thieves to sneak around stealing the meat.”
Ruby glares at her, “rogues Jan, they’re called rogues. A thief is someone who steals stuff. A rogue is a person skilled in sneaking and trap detection.”
Jan rolls her eyes again, “Whatever, just because you’re friends with a lock monkey doesn’t change the truth. Where else would they get the skills?”
Ruby’s glare intensifies, “he was a locksmith. His job was to help people get open things when they forget their keys inside or some such. He has even had the police use his services.”
Jan is about to speak up again but Sammy yells, “Off to the next room! Hear it is a doozy!” And she charges off closely followed by Jack. Ruby takes one final look at Jan before she follows them. Jan just scoffs and saunters off after them.
In the next room the party is finally having a legitimate hard time. Unlike they had heard there were six goats in the room, not five. Plus they are all wearing helmets which the other groups had completely failed to mention. The goats could use their fancy headgear as well.
Most of Sammy’s slashes were getting blocked by the metal horn guards. Only Jack was having any luck with his concrete mace having already knocked one goat out. Now though three of the five goats have focused him down forcing him to dodge instead of attack.
Ruby joining the battle helps some but her fire ribbon attack proves less than able to get through the helmet as well. It leaves a nasty burn mark on the helmet but that is about it. Jan just stands back and laughs.
Still despite their troubles this stalemate with the goats doesn’t last that long. It just takes one good shot from Ruby across a goat's eye to swing the battle in their favor. That goat screams in pain which opens it up to an attack from Sammy which finishes the job.
Sammy does take an attack in return but she was ready for it. While metal covered goat horns to the side aren't comfortable she soldiers through the pain and rams her shield in the last goat attacking her.
To her other side Jack winds up and swings his concrete mace around in a low sweep knocking the two goats on him over. This lets Ruby slash out with her fire ribbon spell and gut them both. With only two goats remaining the fight wraps up quickly.
Enemies finished Jack props himself up with his mace, “whew, that was something. Lucky us though, each of them dropped some meat. Now the question is do we want to fight the kobolds? Also Jan, heal Sammy.”
Jan scoffs, “it’s just a bruise.”
Jack levels a stare at her, “Jan, heal Sammy”
She stares right back but can’t hold it. With a pout and a sigh she mumbles, “[Minor Heal]”, and when she touches Sammy a small burst of white light can be seen. Sammy stretches and smiles, “Wow, you actually can heal. It's like nothing ever happened!”
Jack nods, “Good, now once again, should we face the kobolds?”
Ruby shrugs, “We should at least take a look. The goats were already enough of a challenge so I would like to pass on any greater challenge. Especially with only the four of us.”
Sammy stretches some more, “yeah. We don’t really have any info on them except they are there. Let me go take a peek.” And she walks through the rectangular room. One look at the kobolds though sends her right back to the group. “Well mah vote is resoundingly no.”
Jack stands up and picks up his mace, slinging it over his shoulder. “I don’t mind one way or another but how about you tell us what you saw?”
Sammy scratches her head, “You know how these goats had helmets? Well, the kobolds are even better geared. Plus I saw a glimpse of a couple at the back in robes. If the tutorial has taught me anything, robes mean magic. There are only five of them but that means they still outnumber us and they have a goat with them. Honestly, we have grabbed enough food on this trip to make the soup bearable tonight. Tomorrow we can run a few groups through up until maybe the room before this one just fine.”
Ruby shrugs, “sounds like a decent plan. Maybe if we leave some of the food scraps in tonight, there might be more things to harvest. Clover is edible but I would prefer some more classic food stuff. Plus herbs mixed with magic might get us some interesting results. My guide said it wasn’t likely for us to find any mystical herbs this early on but the dungeon might get around that.”
The rest of the group, even Jan, agrees to leave and they start to make their way back out of the dungeon. As they move around the assassin vine Ruby glances at it and ponders for a moment. “You know what? I bet the berries from it might have a more mystical use than just being food. Is there anyone with alchemy knowledge among the survivors?”
They all think about her question until Jack speaks up. “I know the forest town had a guy who knew plants. Don’t know if he survived the chaos but that is a good enough place to start.” Everyone but Jan agrees to look into it as they leave the dungeon.
Outside a couple of regular guys are standing guard and they turn to the group with weapons raised. Once they notice who it is though they drop their weapons and cheer. Jack rolls his eyes but humors them and opens his pack, showing all the meat they had gotten on the trip. Not far off in the distance, a group of people are setting up some basic fences but they drop what they are doing to join in on the celebration. With that it doesn’t take long for the news to spread through the rest of the camp. It takes Ace personally showing up and requesting everyone get back to work before things calm down and the meat can be handed off to the two people who have cooking skills.
Good dynamics you got there
Thanks for the chapter
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Thanks for the chapter
Thank you for reading it
They're not very good huh?
That probably for the best since the dungeon is not that good either... of no fault of its own but its just too young.
@Fuxy He has a ways to go
Well ... three of them are, more or less, but the remaining fourth is a ... liability to said it kindly