"I am definitely desensitised to violence."

This was the truth I had to admit to as I watched another adventurer get hammered down by Krag's mace. The man didn't stand a chance as he almost raised a shield to block the blow, but the sheer power of the impact crushed his arm and shoulder beneath. He had collapsed to the floor screaming in agony, which was quickly ended by another blow, this time to his head. He was wearing a helmet, but that proved equally inefficient as his skull was crushed.

His death marked the third of the team that had arrived on the seventh floor. The remaining three out of the six that had swaggered in turned tail and ran. I was left with the aftermath of the battle and my thoughts. Above, another team was on the third floor duelling with the boars.

"Well, let's see what we've got."

They were running so fast that they were already up to the fifth floor and still going. I rummaged through what was left as Krag returned to his throne and sat upon it. There were a few odds and ends, but nothing caught my eye. I absorbed what I wanted and left the rest. Once satisfied, I covered the bodies with moss and turned to inspect the others that were left.

I shifted my vision into Mana Sight to see how the essence flowed around the bodies, interacting with them. Death mana was present, but in far too low a quantity to animate any other bodies. One other had stood up recently and was promptly smashed down again. The others were in no danger of getting a bit active anytime soon, so I was satisfied.

Those killed were not very powerful or had any interesting skills. The essence I gained from them was minimal, but every bit helped, so I was happy about that. The group on the third knew what they were doing and how far they could take themselves into the Dungeon. They were one of my regulars over the few years I had been operating and had grown from a tin grade team to a decent iron grade group. They were not ready to take on the third-floor guardian and knew it, but they were building up their skills and experience by fighting the boars.

A dozen or so teams had been slowly building up from the fresh-faced noobies they had once been. Those who were too arrogant or slow to learn were either dead or had quit to seek other professions. That did not mean that there was a constant influx of new ones to take their place. In time, these new ones would also learn, die, or quit; whatever happened would happen.

The smart ones stayed on the training floors or dipped their toes into the third until they were ready to progress further down. Those who are too arrogant, like the one who just got crushed on the seventh, learned that I did not hold back the deeper you go. My regulars' overall quality and competence were increasing, which gave me a strange sense of satisfaction to see my initial plans validated so visibly.

The eighth floor was not getting much traffic outside, one or two teams. From listening to different conversations, I believe that might soon change as more adventurers arrive across the continent and beyond. I noticed an increase in the number of non-human teams visiting the Dungeon. The rumours I picked up from the different groups were that there were more en route or had just arrived. I was curious to see what they could do and who they were.

## ## ## ## ##

"How much longer, Thrum?" Gornax asked.

"A few minutes." He replied. He had just returned from speaking to the Guild representative running entry to the Dungeon. "A group just got crushed on the seventh against the ogre."

"Let me guess, young fools biting off more than they could handle?" Val'nira asked in a very dismissive tone.

"Sounds like it."

"What is the plan?" Snortax asked as he was checking over his axe.

"Similar to the last time. We head down to the seventh floor and fight an ogre. Once he's down, we check our condition, and if it's good, we'll head to the eighth." Thrum looked at his team while he spoke, gauging their reactions.

"That's my hope of a quiet day out dashed." Stonus quipped. Most of the others chuckled at his words.

"What a little trip down a stairwell to fight a powerful monster and then onto another floor to fight our way through boars and rats to fight an undead revenant. What more could I, child of the Deep and Stone, need?" Thrum's Words cause more laughter from his group. They all knew it was a way to control the stress of what was coming ahead of them.

"The rewards will be pretty good, and so will be the profit," Tyrax added.

"I swear by the deep and stone as well as all the ancestors, Tyrax, you are a disgusting pervert if you seek to address the issue with your britches one more time…." Val'nira started yelling at him. Thrum drowned out the rest, so it was a typical argument within the group. Calling it an argument was completely wrong. It was just Val'nira yelling with the occasional bout of violence. When the violence occurred, they would step in and stop it.

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Tyrax was no innocent soul in this, and generally egged on their priestess to stoke her fury. He had been caught robbing one of her goddess's temples, which had exiled him from his clan and shaved his beard. It didn't help that he had an issue with his britches the minute they found any decent rewards or things to loot. The problem was that many of the accusations being levelled against him were... very true.

It did not take long before the group was ushered to the Dungeon's surface building. Thrum nodded to the Guild representative as they passed and walked towards the doors. They all quickly passed the threshold into the Dungeon, and as soon as they were in the surface building, the group's attitude changed. They knew it was safe here, but their posture changed to one of alertness.

The strange local beast known as a sharoon was watching them in the rafters. They were now more observant of this monster, as he had seen it doing some strange things when they were last here.

There had been some discussion amongst the group about whether or not to hunt this monster. After some consultation with the Guild, it had been decided that they should leave it alone, as she had never taken any aggressive action against anyone who had entered the Dungeon in the past. Many were concerned about what would happen if they did take action against it.

They were instructed to keep their eyes out for the other unknown monster that they had seen. Again, if they were not attacked, they would leave it alone but observe it for the Guild's register of what monsters lay within this Dungeon. There was more conversation over this monster's existence and what would happen if it were hunted and killed, as it, too, seemed to avoid adventurers.

It was another of those weird quirks that this Dungeon had.

They started marching down the stairwell, descending the floors, ignoring the top six. The silver vein on the sixth floor was very tempting to mine, but they didn't want to get in line with the other miners. They also didn't like fighting the snakes on that floor, so they decided to ignore it out of mutual agreement.

They didn't take long to reach the first floor, where they would access. The two large doors were before them, and they took a few moments to prepare themselves for what was ahead.

## ## ## ## ##

Krag was ready.

I had warned him that the team would come downstairs after they had bypassed the sixth. It had taken him a few moments to remember them. He was now looking forward to getting revenge after the last time they had fought.

The dwarves came in similar to the first time they had fought him. The three heavily armed warriors led the way, followed by the others. I had always noticed the strange one without the beard in the back and wondered what his deal was. I eventually realised you had some sort of support type that handled all of the resource collecting and carried the excess equipment for the rest. On his back was a huge and well-enchanted dimensional bag.

Krag started across the hallway as soon as the doors opened, and they began to enter. He moved quickly without triggering his [Charge] skill, which differed slightly from him. The armoured dwarves in the front could not miss his advance and braced themselves to meet it head-on.

My guardian had a new trick, surprising me with what he did next. He cast [Shadow Arms] before attacking something I had not seen before. This caused the middle dwarf to stumble as his legs were ensnared by tentacles emerging from his shadow. As the ones behind sought to free him, Krag triggered [Charge], crossing the short distance even faster and colliding with the off-balance dwarf.

The large shield smashes him to the floor. His face was bloody, and he may have a concussion. The two on either side quickly tried to cover him as the ones behind pulled him back. Krag is not letting up, attacking with more precision and control than usual. He strikes out and then pulls back, using his shield to protect himself as he does.

The head of his mace suddenly glows as he triggers [Smash], but before he strikes with the imbued weapon, [Shadow Arms] is triggered again, causing one of the dwarves to stumble again. The mace falls, and I expect that the dwarf is about to die. The other dwarf pushes the off-balance one out of the way, glowing with his skill triggered, and takes the blow onto his shield.

The force of the impact drives him to the ground, and I hear a sickly crack and a cry of pain from the dwarf. The shield is also broken, with a crack running straight through the middle of it, which can be seen through the metal covering.

Krag was not messing around!

A projectile made of stone hits his shield and penetrates deep into the wood. The force of the impact knocked his shield slightly to the side, and he was forced to turn with it. This allows the second dwarf, knocked off balance, to attack him. He was armed with an axe and was hacking away at the exposed leg before him. With each strike, the blade edge was glowing with an activated skill and ripped deep into Krag's leg. He managed to get three in before Krag got a shield to cover him again.

Krag returned the favour and hit that dwarf back with his mace. The impact on the shield would slouch, and the two grunted under its force. Krag lifted his arm again to continue to pound down on his target. As he did, an arrow streaked out and embedded itself deeply into the meat of its left upper arm. Krag grunted at the projectile's impact and used his other arm to tear it out.

Looking around, I found that one of the support personnel had pulled out a large crossbow from somewhere and was fast-reloading it. They had not shown this weapon before, and I was very interested to look it over as it was reloaded. The first dwarf hit was now back on his feet and getting back into the fight.

I looked at the three bars above Krag's head. Only the mana seemed to be drained to any serious level, so this fight would not end soon.

The rest of the fight entered a more familiar cycle. The dwarves slowly wore down Krag, but they were getting far bloodier this time than before. He had retreated against a pillar in the hole again to protect his back and forced them to fight around his stronger side as he covered himself more with his shield. This dragged out the fight far longer than usual, and his greater endurance was one of the significant factors in how it lasted so long. Each side was using all its skills. It seemed it just turned into more of a siege battle.

He fell, but the dwarves almost fell over themselves from sheer exhaustion. Most were breathing hard or downright gulping for air. The three forward fighters were all battered hard and looked like they were done for the day. Such work with the dimensional storage bag came into the room, started collecting the rewards, and moved over to collect the moonlight rose when that was finished.

The dwarves spoke amongst themselves in their harsh and guttural language. They seemed to come to some conclusion and then left the floor when they could walk. I partly expected them to head down to the next floor, but they turned and went up instead. It seemed the fight had taken far more out of them than I had realised.

"Krag, what will you do next?"

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