Biff led us across the cavern, still watching for trouble. “Heads on swivel!” Was his command halfway across when we started chatting with each other, because we just expected the room to be cleared and finished.

  As it was, we did clear and finish the room. But as Biff gently chided us, that had not been the point.

  We teased him as we made our way down the next hallway. Biff kept looking for traps even though the Keeper had not mentioned there would be any more.

  When I commented on that, Biff remarked, “It also seemed like he enjoyed surprises. Do you want one of those catching you unawares in here?”

  I think we were all happier without surprises so we all paid more attention after that.

  Finally, and without unwanted surprise, we arrived at the last room.

  The room was another cavern, but not as high as the one with bats. Still, the ceiling was around thirty feet above us and had to be fifty to sixty feet long.

  The same, deep and ominous bell tolled and was followed soon after by a deeper, louder growl.

  We could tell the growl came from the far side of the room, which was cloaked in shadows. As we watched, the same magical blue torchlight that had been with us along the hallways and in the previous rooms visibly dimmed.

  We could hear some scraping against the cavern floor, but it was hard to tell in the near darkness how close or far away it was.

  “I can’t see the walls or ceiling anymore,” Addie said.

  Steven cast his Holy Light spell, and the area immediately around us lit up brightly.

  As did the face of a ten-foot, hairy beast with fangs, a cone-shaped head, and arms as big around as my legs.

  The Yeti roared.

  Things happened quickly after that.

  Addie cast her standard five Firebolts, which worked well against cold-based creatures. They were maxed for power, I was sure. I did the same with Mage Blast, and kept the bolts focused on the Yeti because they tended to like a variety of targets.

  Steven angled forward and took a swing at the creature with his mace, while Biff swung with his sparking gauntlets.

  We all hit our target.

  Other than another roar from Addie’s fire attack, the rest of our attacks didn’t seem to faze the Yeti too much.

  Its reaction was to shove its hands at us, and a giant burst of freezing air knocked us all backwards and off our feet—even Biff.

  Thankfully, Steven’s Holy Light stayed up.

  As we struggled to stand, the room burst into a blizzard. It was whiteout conditions, and I could barely see my hand in front of my face. The wind was fierce and loud, making it hard to hear anything beyond our own voices.

  I had a bad feeling that this green dungeon just got boosted.

  There was a dark movement to my side and another roar, followed by Biff’s scream of pain.

  The Yeti must have gone for him as the biggest threat. He certainly was the biggest one of us.

  A burst of flame nearby revealed what appeared to be a bonfire.

  I moved toward it rapidly and discovered it was a fire elemental that was standing protectively before Addie.

  Steven soon joined us, his Holy Light making it harder to see in the blizzard as its rays reflected off thousands of ice crystals in the snow.

  “Biff’s in trouble!” I managed to say above the wind’s roar.

  “Go to him!” Addie told me as she cast another spell.

  I had lost my Wizard Armor in the previous encounter, but she replaced it with Flame Armor.

  “I look bad!” I roared. I think it came across a bit high-pitched, but in the wind, maybe nobody noticed.

  I moved off in the direction I thought Biff might be. Steven accompanied me.

  The magical blizzard blinded my magical sight; otherwise, I would have tried to locate him by focusing on his magical gauntlets. The spell allowed me to perceive things even in pitch black, although only around the glow of magical objects. The spell did not reveal things otherwise.

  Another roar, this time closer, was followed by a flare of electrical sparks. I knew we were close.

  A giant furry arm flew at me from the side. I had angled just a bit off from where I thought the creature had been.

  It connected, and I was thrown to the side, maybe seven to ten feet away.

  The twenty points of protective fire armor she gave me dropped to five. I didn’t take any of that damage, but based on another roar, this one pitched to suggest pain and not merely anger, the Yeti got scorched.

  But Steven and the Yeti were both out of sight again.

  The fire armor offered some protection, but not much light. On the positive side, I was no longer cold, so that was something.

  The more powerful fire or air spells that I had in rings were too much for this enclosed space.

  I got up and made my way back toward the roaring. Or, at least in its general direction.

  When I stumbled upon the Yeti, it was fighting both Biff and Steven. I could tell they had both taken damage, but so had the Yeti.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  There may have been a randomness to the monster spawns, but the Yeti seemed more powerful than it should be.

  Still, I was close enough to give another attack a try.

  I shoved the edge of my staff at him like a spear, but without a sharp metal end.

  It was my turn to connect.

  I didn’t have a spear, but I did have Staffcraft.

  I pumped a Mage Blast into the strike.

  When I hit him, two things happened. The Yeti took a hit from my magical staff along with a complete Mage Blast. That was good.

  But we needed to kick up the ante. I needed to kick it up.

  I had magical gems in my shirt pocket beneath my robes. As long as they were on me somewhere, I could tap into them.

  I thought quickly, What did I have primed in the 7pt topaz, the fire elemental gem?

  I recalled that it was a Firebolt spell.

  That was a good spell, especially against the Yeti as shown by Addie, but we needed more.

  I barely dodged another swing from the Yeti, but I think it was a backstroke in its attack on Steven.

  I needed to quickly explore the gem for better options.

  I used a casting point and entered it. The Firebolt spell was primed, as I knew, but there were six other spells. And an extraordinarily rare effect among the options was the third element spell, Combust.

  That was a spell that did initial fire damage and ongoing fire damage over time. “It’s a DOT!” I yelled, changing the gem's ability from Firebolt to its Combust effect.

  The Yeti moved in closer to me, maybe because of my scream, perhaps because it was just my turn to get attacked.

  Either way, it came at me.

  It was huge. Its arms were like a gorilla's, its chest was like a warrior’s tower shield. And for me, that meant it was a really big, really close target.

  I shoved the staff at him again, pulling the same move.

  Either it didn’t bother to avoid my strike, or I was too fast.

  I decided to go with the choice of me being too fast. Feeling like it wasn’t intimidated against me didn't feel right, somehow.

  And it should have been.

  I struck and used another skill point to release the Combust spell.

  That got its attention.

  The fur along its upper chest and shoulders burst into flames.

  And kept burning.

  It reared back and bellowed.

  That was when Addie struck.

  Twice, if you give her credit for the elemental.

  The elemental went in low, and her second volley of Firebolts went higher, hitting the same chest and shoulder areas as my blast.

  Steven struck its side with his Mace, and Biff leaped up and Suckerpunched its jaw.

  Suckerpunch was an actual brawler skill. It was a surprise or sudden strike on an enemy that either did not know the brawler was near or had turned away from him.

  Biff liked to talk about that skill a lot. He earned it last year around this time. And while he had not used it too often because of the severe damage that came with it, which would outright kill most normal people, he did like to go on about how cool it was.

  I now understand why.

  He laid the giant Yeti out onto the cavern floor.

  His strike must have broken its concentration, because the blizzard stopped.

  And while it may not have been as honorable as waiting for it to get back up, Addie and I laid into it with another round of spells.

  But the final blow went to Biff. Somewhere, he picked up a stalagmite that he then used to clobber the Yeti over the head as it started to slowly sit up.

  It went down for good.

  A chime sounded, and the dimmed torchlights returned to their regular brightness.

  “No riddles…in this room…right?” Steven asked between gasps. “I don’t…want to do that…again.”

  Biff had claw marks down his shoulder and arm, and the whole left side of his face was bruised.

  “That was more fun than the alligators!” He cheered.

  I just shook my head.

  “A chest appeared over there,” Addie informed us with a wave toward the center of the room.

  With my magic vision cleared once more, I could see that the chest was not trapped. At least, it was not magically trapped.

  I let them know.

  “Anything magic on the Yeti?” Addie asked.

  I could see a tuft of hair on its back was glowing as a component, as were all five claws on its right hand.

  “A whole set. Nice.” Addie said as she began working on removing the claws. I pointed out the hair to her, but ended up just collecting it myself because it was easier. We both used our silver daggers to preserve the components’ magical properties.

  We tied the hair using a large ball of twine I had in my backpack.

  “It’s for mazes,” Addie explained, as I questioned why I had it, even though I was thankful for it.

  I thought about the legend of the minotaur and could see what she meant.

  “No other drops for the boss?” Biff asked.

  “Nothing. It must all be in the magical chest.” I replied.

  “Oh.” He said, disappointed.

  Steven had walked over to Biff and began healing him. “Why do you ask?”

  Biff looked at Steven and then at the Yeti. “I got these gauntlets as a direct drop from the journeyman gauntlet boss.”

  We all looked around to be sure, but didn’t see anything near the Yeti..

  “Let’s check out the chest,” Addie suggested.

  We walked over and around it.

  “Looks like a chest to me,” Steven commented dryly.

  “We really do need a burglar with us in the future,” Biff observed.

  “Stand back, I’ll give it a try.” Biff waited for us to move before he lifted the lid.

  “You’ll like this, Gwyd.” He said when nothing explosive happened to him or the room around him.

  We walked over and found a dagger, a gem, a ring, and a sack of coins.

  I wasn’t sure if he meant the ring or the gem. Maybe both.

  “Are they magical?” Steven asked.

  “Yes, the dagger, ring, and tourmaline gem are magical.”

  “Tourmaline. Air magic. Figures,” Addie said.

  “The dagger is enchanted. It has a permanent Sharpness spell on it. I have that ability. It is magical but mildly so.” I had lifted and inspected the dagger first.

  Steven pointed at the dagger, “Depending on the ring, we could deliver that as the magical bounty the contract required.”

  I had forgotten about that. We owed the Keepers a magical object from the dungeon as the final part of the payment.

  “Let me check the ring out and then see what powers I can pull out of the gemstone,” I stated.

  I picked up the ring, seeing that it was enchanted but not cursed. I put it on.

  “The ring gives an elemental Cold Armor spell once per day for thirty points.”

  “Oh, nice. That’s rare. Cold magic is a part of air magic, but is far more rare than lightning magic, which was another air elemental specialty.” Addie explained.

  “And it gets better,” I added. “Any creature who strikes the armor for damage takes one point for every two points it inflicts, rounded up. And there is a chance that non-magical weapons could shatter.”

  “Want that ring, Addie?” Steven asked. “Seems like a good one for you.”

  She looked at Biff. “Or for the tank.”

  “Nah, I got these.” He punched his gauntlets together, and they sparked again.

  “Check out the gem, Gwydion. I know those are your thing.” Steven offered.

  The others agreed.

  So, I used another casting point to dive into the 7pt tourmaline. There were only five spell effects rather than the standard seven, but they were sweet.

  I said aloud, “There are first element Frost and Snowball spells, second element Lesser Cold Weapon and Ice Blast spells, and a third element Blizzard spell.”

  “That is OP, Gwydion.” Addie cheered.

  “I have never seen all those spells in a gem before, let alone a simple 7pt gemstone,” I said, mostly to myself.

  “Any issues with Gwyd taking the gem or Addie the ring?” Biff asked.

  “Nope,” Steven said with a grin. “I’m just hoping for the skill or spell point when we leave here.”

  “Agreed then,” Biff said. “We can split the coins.”

  The bag contained 400 silver coins. The coin haul was not great, but the other drops were far more than our price of entry.

  We made our way back the way we had come. The archway that had sealed our entry was open once more. When we looked through the exit archway, we could see the Keeper sorting cards again at his table.

  “Here’s hoping for a quest reward,” Biff said as he led us out.

  As I walked through the archway, the AI whispered into my ear. Enchanter Gwydion earns a spell or skill point to be placed as desired for completing the first Apprentice Gauntlet dungeon quest. Spell and skill points must be reclaimed at a guild hall or sanctuary. Additions and notes have been added to your Book of Quests that remain unread.

  I was delighted that I took the time away from guild visits to join my friends on this side quest. It paid off.

  We talked about the fights, messed-up riddle, and traps the whole way back to town.

  This is why I wanted to be a mage.

  A note from cqTrooth:

  I hope you enjoyed this little mini dungeon dive. It was fun to pull it together.