Chapter 149 — More Than Expected

Chapter 149: Chapter 149 — More Than Expected

Floor Three opened into something considerably less orderly than the two levels above it — the smooth, deliberate stonework of the upper passages giving way to rougher, more natural cavern, walls veined with pale mineral deposits and the ceiling rising and falling unevenly overhead, low enough in places that even Grennig had to duck.

"Upper Depths keeps its shape loosely consistent through about Floor Ten," Ilyana said, leading the party along a wide, branching passage. "Worked stone near the entrance, natural cavern the deeper you go, fungal growth thickening the further you push. Guild’s mapped this stretch thoroughly enough that surprises are rare. Doesn’t mean absent."

Arlen took in the terrain with the same careful attention he gave any unfamiliar ground — pale, faintly luminous fungus clustering in damp hollows along the passage floor, mineral veins catching what little light reached them, sound carrying strangely, swallowed in places and oddly amplified in others.

They passed a Sporeback Toad within the first stretch, sluggish and easily avoided, and further on a small cluster of Glowcap Mushroomlings that scattered at their approach in a soft, drifting cloud of harmless spores. Kess pointed out a vein of raw ore threading through one wall without breaking stride, and Osric noted its location in his logbook the same unhurried way he had the floor above.

A Fungal Bear crossed their path not long after, considerably larger than anything they’d yet encountered on this floor, its shaggy hide mottled with patches of pale growth. It huffed once at the party’s approach, more territorial warning than genuine threat, and Rurik met its lumbering charge with a single, contemptuous strike that dropped it before it closed half the distance.

"Rank Four, that one," he said, wiping his knuckles clean. "Bigger than most of what’s down here, not dangerous for it."

Kess knelt beside the carcass anyway, checking with quick, practiced hands. "Hide’s not worth much, too damaged from the spore growth. Claws might fetch something." She took them, and they moved on.

A Rootmaw Centipede erupted from beneath the passage floor a short while later, longer than a grown man was tall, mandibles clicking with a paralytic venom the guild bestiary had flagged as genuinely worth respecting. Grennig’s shield caught its first lunge, and Ilyana finished it with a single, economical spear-thrust through a segment joint before it could recover for a second attempt.

"That venom’s worth harvesting properly," Osric said, already producing a small waxed vial from his pack. "Alchemists pay well for centipede paralytics. Fresh extraction only, though — spoils fast."

Arlen watched him work, filing the detail away alongside everything else. A pair of Hollow Ants scurried past their boots not long after, ignored entirely — too small, too common, not worth the effort of a strike. A Corpsecap Mimic nearly caught Kess off guard, disguised among a cluster of ordinary mushroom growth until it lunged for her ankle, and she dispatched it with a startled laugh and a single downward stab before anyone else had fully registered the danger.

"Those are always worth a bit of caution," she said, recovering her composure. "Rank Three, but the surprise is the actual danger, not the fight itself."

They pressed on, the passage widening and narrowing by turns, past a den of Blindfang Lizards that scattered rather than engaged, past a slow-moving Stone Slime that Rurik simply stepped around without comment, and past a startled Cave Wolf that took one look at six armed adventurers and vanished back into a side tunnel before anyone bothered drawing a weapon.

It was Rurik who caught the first sign that something ahead demanded more attention than any of it — pausing mid-stride, ears twitching toward a side passage none of them had been aiming for. "Voices," he said. "More than the last count suggested."

Kess slipped ahead to scout properly, vanishing into the shadowed passage with barely a whisper of sound, and returned a few minutes later with the easy, unbothered air of someone reporting nothing especially remarkable.

"Fifty or so, spread across three chambers," she said. "Bigger than the guild’s last survey, but that’s just how these things go — weak monsters flock together, and colonies grow when nobody’s bothered clearing them properly in a while."

"Fifty Lesser-rank goblins isn’t much of anything for the six of us," Osric said, already unslinging his staff more out of habit than concern. "Only real question is whether there’s anything worth noting mixed in with the crowd."

"There is, actually," Kess added. "Caught sight of two that stood a head taller than the rest, better muscled, carrying real weapons instead of scavenged junk. Rockhides don’t climb much past Rank Three on their own — those two are probably it, unless one of them’s a genuine mutation and pushed to Four. Either way, worth a bit of care, not worth changing the plan over."

Arlen absorbed that with genuine interest rather than alarm, turning the distinction over the way he turned over most new information now. Fifty Lesser goblins were, by any measure this party operated on, background noise — the kind of number that would have terrified a fresh Rank F adventurer outside Miller’s Bend and meant almost nothing to six Novice-and-above fighters who’d spent years earning exactly this kind of casual confidence.

"Formation’s simple enough," Ilyana said, already moving toward the chamber’s edge without any particular urgency. "Straight in, hold the center, let the two bigger ones reveal themselves and deal with those properly when they do. Rest of the camp won’t hold long once its strongest members start falling."

"I’ll take a look at the layout first," Arlen offered, more out of habit than necessity, and drew on Duskveil, curious to properly test it against a genuine crowd rather than a handful of isolated targets.

Ilyana nodded, unbothered. "Go on, if you like. Not that we need it this time."

He moved to the chamber’s edge, Hawk’s Eye sharpening the scene into clear detail — three connected chambers exactly as Kess had described, cookfires scattered throughout, goblins moving in loose clusters with no obvious central authority tying them together. Two, near the chamber’s far side, stood clearly apart from the rest — broader, steadier on their feet, crude but well-maintained weapons rather than scavenged junk.

He returned and reported what he’d seen, and Ilyana nodded again, satisfied rather than concerned.

"Matches what Kess found. Grennig, Rurik, take the center and let the weak ones come to you. Kess and I will find the two mutated ones and finish those properly. Osric, cover whoever needs it. Arlen —" she glanced at him, something warm and genuinely curious in her expression "— stay loose. Use whatever you’ve got. I’d like to actually see what a fresh Novice with your particular toolkit does against something worth using it on."

Arlen drew his blade, the unfamiliar new weight of Kellan’s superior steel settling properly into his grip, and followed the party into the chamber.