I took a step through the archway and felt myself get pulled to my left as if a cord had a hook behind my navel and yanked. It hurt, but more as a sting than anything severe.

  My foot landed inside a shadowy room with dim light provided by blue flames dancing in wall sconces. They looked like torches, but the flames were clearly magical.

  The archway sealed itself when Steven, who was the last to enter, walked through.

  “Fetch your staff, we’ve got company,” Biff said, standing in front of me and before a trio of large doglike creatures that stood from where they had been napping.

  I set my backpack down and opened the top strap, sticking my hand in and willing my loaner magestaff into my hands.

  “It’s cold in here,” Addie stated, pulling out a wand in each hand from her belt where four wands rested in specially designed sheaths.

  Steven walked up and stood a few paces to Biff’s right. “Nothing behind us, so I’ll help tank.”

  There was room between the brawler and cleric for Addie and me to see the layout of the room, which was snow-covered stone, maybe forty feet wide and half again that deep. A hallway ran off the room from the back wall. I couldn't see how far it extended from here.

  The ceiling was twenty feet high and also stone. It looked like it had been chipped away at rather than laid with stone slabs. The floor was smooth and seemed more like a cave floor than a worked dungeon room, as I had been expecting from all my readings about adventures and Keeper dungeons.

  “Looks like snow hyenas,” Addie observed.

  A bell rang, heavy and echoing off the cold walls.

  “Room one bell?” Steven asked lightly.

  “More like the dinner bell.” Biff responded as four more snow hyenas walked out of the shadows to join the trio in the middle of the room.

  Biff said, “Three initials and one more for each of us who entered. Same thing that happened with the alligators.”

  “You guys had to fight a half dozen gators?” Steven asked.

  “Seven. Yeah. They were pretty big. The smallest was twice my length.”

  The snow hyenas began to vocalize, and it made the hair stand up on the back of my neck.

  There was a series of giggles and whoops, followed by some growls and snarls.

  I now understand what people meant when they talked about laughing hyenas. But there was nothing at all joyful in those giggles. They were eerie.

  Their cackles weren’t much better.

  “I’ll get things started,” Addie remarked as she let loose a spell.

  Five firebolts were released from the tips of her fingers. I knew that spell as part of the Adventurer’s set that Master Gizmo wanted her to give to me. They were first level with minimal damage, but she could reach five of the hyenas at a go.

  Each bolt of flame slammed into a different snow beast. By its yelp and rapid backstep, I could see that she was probably right about fire doing extra damage.

  Five were wounded, but none fell.

  I decided to up the ante and used a silver ring from my hand to cast Fire Blast. It was an area of effect spell like my Mage Blast, but it had splash damage that would affect more than one target, given their proximity.

  All the hyenas took damage, but two of them took considerably more and collapsed to the floor.

  The Single Use Spell ring flashed and disappeared, its held spell completed.

  “Gwydion, your staff. Is that normal? Steven asked.

  “Not the kind of language I’d expect from a holy man.” Addie grinned. But then she saw my magestaff and laughed. “Wait, is that a training staff?”

  “Here they come!” Biff warned.

  Steven took a swing at the nearest hyena with his mace and connected soundly. It snarled, but it backed away.

  I thought that was a good sign until two others slipped in and bit at his legs.

  Hyenas were pack animals, and that meant they knew how to fight together.

  I leaned forward and took a swing at one with the worn old elementalist guild training staff. I missed, but I think that the hyena also failed to get a bite on Steven.

  The other did, however.

  Biff leaned down and simply punched a hyena, one-two with his electric gauntlets. It went down. Hard.

  The fifth remaining snow hyena slid between the two tanks and past me to go for the smallest of the four of us and the only female. Maybe it thought she was the weakest.

  It was wrong.

  Just as it got close, a stone fist crashed down on top of the hyena’s head, and it got smashed against the snowy cave floor.

  “And then there were four!” I called out with a laugh.

  I didn't even get another attack in as Steven struck the one that had bitten him, Addie’s magical elemental fist struck another, and Biff took out two of the wounded ones, a single punch on each.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “We are OP in this dungeon,” I laughed again.

  Addie cast a sidelong look at me and the thin wooden magestaff with the two ends painted yellow. She smiled but didn’t say anything.

  “Anything magical around here?” Biff asked.

  “I keep forgetting to use my spell. Hold on.” I said, as I cast my See All Magic and Enchantments spell. It was a more powerful version of a similar spell that other mages had access to.

  I looked around. “Nothing significant, but each has a claw as a component, and two have fangs. That means an alchemist would buy them.”

  Addie pulled out her silver dagger. I did the same and gave it to Biff, who was more practiced with hides.

  I pointed out the components, and they went to work.

  “There are coins near each of the hyenas.” He observed, kneeling down and picking them up. “All copper by the looks of it.”

  “Collect them,” I said. “Every bit helps, and I can always use them to make more rings for you guys.”

  “Exactly 75 copper coins,” Steven announced.

  “That’s 7.5 silver, and less than a gold piece. Not a great start for something that cost us 25 gold each to get in.” Addie observed.

  “It’s just the first room, and it's an apprentice dungeon,” Biff responded. “It’ll get better. Besides, the real bonus is the skill point you get for clearing your first gauntlet dungeon.”

  “We get a skill point for this?” Steven asked as he handed me the coins. “You hold them for us.” He offered.

  Biff thought for a minute. “Well, a skill point or a spell point, I guess. It's what I was offered for the Journeyman Gauntlet quest. Maybe it will be different here, though.”

  “I hope not.” Addie and I both said.

  “Move on?” Steven suggested.

  “Line up!” Biff barked.

  This was where Biff shone. He knew how to protect an asset, as he called it. Brawlers could be found serving as bouncers in pretty rough areas across the city, but they also served as bodyguards for VIPs and wealthy citizens. He was our tank, but he was more than just a muscle head.

  Biff took the lead, followed by Addie, me, and then Steven. Addie was second because she was small, and I could see over her. Steven was in the back, so a fighter covered our exit or blind spot. Biff hadn’t allowed any arguments, which is why Steven waited until Biff had gone through the portal before offering his own thoughts about our marching order.

  I trusted Biff. We all did.

  The passage he led us down looked manmade, and no longer had the rough-chipped cave look.

  “Keep an eye out for traps,” Biff warned. “The Keeper said there would be traps in the next two rooms.”

  He probed the floor in front of us as he walked. He was by far the heaviest of us, and if there was a trap door triggered by weight, he’s set it off.

  “Next time we recruit a burglar,” Steven suggested.

  He had to have been worried about traps to make that offer. Priests were not overly fond of thieves, in general. Their ways of life and general philosophy were nearly opposite.

  But I noted he said burglar, and not thief. Burglars did have reputations as dungeon hacks because of their skills with traps. And some had to be pretty loyal and honest.

  Maybe?

  “We turn right, then enter the next room.” He called back to us. “Looks like two polar bears. And they hear us.”

  “Then maybe less talking and more quiet?” Addie whispered back at him, unnecessarily.

  Biff rushed into the room. A second bell tolled as soon as Steven entered behind him.

  We followed.

  The bears were fierce, but the entire battle took less time than it did with the hyenas. Biff tanked one, and the rest of us fought the other. I got a claw swipe, which damaged my wizard armor, so kindly gifted by Wizard Olivia. Steven got a pretty bad bite, which he would need to heal after refusing a potion or spell for the hyena bite in the previous room.

  I hit it once and used my Staffcraft skill to pump Mage Blast into it. Steven struck it twice. Our combos did some damage, but it went down at a single word from Addie.

  “What was that?” Steven asked Addie, out of breath and watching Biff laughing as he struck his bear for the final time.

  “Harm. It’s not my favorite, but it is the reverse of the blood elemental Heal spell. It worked, though.” She admitted.

  “Those spells are pretty heavy on mana, arent’t they?” He asked.

  “Yeah. Not very efficient. Not like your healing spells, which you need to use on yourself. Now.” She urged, pointing at his wopunds in here and the previous room.

  Steven healed himself as Biff walked over. “Nice work on your polar bear. I think it might have been the bigger of the two.”

  I didn’t see a difference. That was his being kind and not pointing out that there were three of us on this one compared to his solo melee.

  “Any magic?” He asked.

  I looked at the bears and around the room.

  “Yes, three bear claws, and a wooden chest that is glowing.”

  That last observation got some appreciative Oohs.

  “Must be the trap,” Steven commented, as he offered to help Addie remove the components. But Biff handled the bear with two claws. Addie removed the other.

  I handed her the leather satchel I had been using to hold the other components. “You might as well hold all of them,” I said.

  She placed the three polar bear claws in the satchel and put it in her backpack.

  We all carried the magical, journeymen backpacks, although Biff’s nearly looked like a purse against his broad back.

  I mentioned that once to him.

  He was not amused.

  “Man purse?” I corrected.

  He had walked away from me.

  We all moved over to examine the chest.

  “Well, it is magical, and it is a conjuration spell.”

  Addie nodded. “So whatever the trap is, it will get made as it happens.”

  “There doesn't seem to be a lock, should I just open it?” Biff said as he bent down toward it.

  “No!” we all yelled.

  He burst out laughing. “Just messing with you.”

  We sighed in relief.

  “But I am the logical one to open it.” He observed.

  It still made me smile to hear the vocabulary that came out of my big lug of a best friend’s mouth. He looks like he’d say, “Me open. You back up.” But instead, we get three, four, and five-syllable words. He was much smarter than he let on. I think that might be one of the biggest differences between brawlers and the gladiators or barbarians. All of those guilds recruited especially strong warriors, but brawlers’ bodyguarding duties required wit and enhanced senses.

  “Okay, you can open it. I don’t see a lock.” I said. “But let’s talk about options first.”

  He stood back, arms across his chest, but remained patient.

  “What do you think it conjures?” Addie asked.

  “I have no idea. If there are spells to tell that, I don’t know them. But my spell does give more detail than, ‘hey that thing glows’.”

  She nodded, understanding what I meant. If she had the basic spell, and you’d be a daft mage not to be able to tell if something was magical, it only revealed magical from mundane.

  “It could be another bear or creature.” Steven offered.

  That gave us pause to think.

  Addie asked, “Can conjurers create living things?”

  I bit my lip. “I don’t think so. Summoners can summon living things, but I’m not so sure about conjurers actually making living objects.”

  “I saw a conjurer client make an apple once, and gave it to a kid on the street,” Biff stated.

  “Hmm. Then I don’t know.”

  “Well, it’s a fair bet that whatever it conjures will not be an apple,” Addie added.

  “What about a poison gas?” Steven asked.

  “That makes more sense.” I agreed.

  “Then, let me cast St. Michael’s Breath on each of us. It will protect us from poisonous gases, and we can even breathe underwater if needed.” He cast me a sidelong look.

  I planned to head underwater soon, and he and his fellow cleric Thomas had provided me with spells for rings I had made for that.

  “Good call.” I deflected. Let’s do that. We can back up and let Biff here open the chest since he is so eager to do so.”

  He grinned back at me.

  So, with the spells cast, and us standing each in a different corner of the room in case we needed to cast attack or healing spells, Biff opened the chest…

  A note from cqTrooth:

  True, I could have ended the room in this chapter, but where’s the fun in that?