A quick search of the tunnel showed there was actually a thin wall on the side that probably led to somewhere bad. "Okay don't lean on this," she said. Continuing on she made it to the next room, the guards following. This room was another mess of flesh and hairs. A few bloody crusted holes were on the floor. "Uh, think those are the bad holes?"

  "Yeah," Thadius said. "Keep an eye out for tunnelers. We'll move to clean them out."

  Zanya's sharp voice came from behind. "If there's a chance of ambushers, keep your healer close."

  "Ah right." Some of the guards looked more chagrined than others, but they motioned for Shiina and Delilah to follow as they moved towards the holes.

  They were about halfway there when Shiina noticed the meaty floor start to move. Small lumps forming and spreading as something tunneled closer. "They're coming," she said. The guards readied their weapons in a loose line.

  A horror of sharp black edges attached to a pasty grub body burst free in a shower of gore. The razor worm was at least six feet long and four feet around and it let out a screech as it raised into the air, ready to snap its jaws down on Erudine.

  The catgirl swung her bardiche in an arc that slammed into the worm's side. The creature was jerked to the side as its body burst open. More gore spilled out, and the razor worm flopped to the ground, its upper half still trying to attack.

  Similar scenes occurred along the line. The sole exception was Lenius, whose spear punctured the creature, but didn't knock it aside. The worm twisted and struck his arm, blood spurting as the razor worm's mouth latched on.

  The dog man screamed, twisting the spear and trying to use it to push the creature off. But the worm ignored its guts being torn open. Shiina was reaching out to move closer, when a blast of light pierced the worm's head, leaving a massive hole. The creature spasmed a few more times, then dropped dead.

  Delilah moved up to start healing the injured man, while Ife lowered her staff. "Your formation was bad. You should have had the spear users in the middle if these things can ignore deathblows."

  The trainee guards looked either chagrined or annoyed at that. "Never happened in practice," Primus muttered. Shiina gave the man a look. Lots of things never happen in practice. She wasn't even that experienced and she knew that!

  Speaking of experience, she moved closer to the worms. One of the halves was still twitching and snapping. How would she kill one of those? After a moment she decided poison was probably her best bet. Maybe something caustic that wasn't common in nature. She decided on 'stomach burster' poison and gave the worm a stab.

  The grublike body was again surprisingly resilient, but her blade did puncture through. A dark stain appeared on the creatures body and the thrashing increased as the stain spread. Soon a good chunk of the worm was a mottled purple and the creature lay still.

  Meanwhile Delilah seemed to have finished her healing. "Is your arm okay now?"

  Lenius rolled his shoulder a few times and nodded, his tail wagging slow. "Yeah, thanks. And sorry."

  "It's why I'm here," Delilah replied with a smile.

  Thadius grinned in return. "And now to move on. Er with a better formation."

  "And after I check for traps," Shiina added pointedly.

  "Right, right." The fighters parted so Shiina could look over the next passage. This one had some kind of sphincter blocking the way. Probably this thing's version of doors. And she saw veins leading to some type of trap. Time to get to work.

  The door was fairly easy. Just a three rune holding, acid, release setup. She cut the link for acid first then the rest. "Okay! Ready to move on."

  The next few rooms went smoothly. It was early on, and the worm ambush had gotten the guard crew to pay attention. But as they continued on the difficulty started to ramp up.

  Shiina really didn't like the fishmen. The creepy things were about four feet tall, used long stabby weapons, and had a tendency to leap over the battle lines. Worst of she couldn't find a poison that would disable or kill them quickly. She'd had to hunt down their weak points which were mostly in the lung area. Or the gills area? She wasn't certain.

  The room they'd just burst into had a dozen of the little annoyances, along with some white slimes and acid pools. Shiina had no idea why there were pools of acid sitting around, but they'd made sure to stay away as much as possible. The guards had set up two lines each between acid pools and were hacking away at the monsters.

  As the front lines bottled up, three of the fishmen did their wriggling leaps over the heads of everyone. Ife burned one from the air, and one was heading towards Zanya, but the last turned back towards Delilah. "I got it," Shiina said as she moved to face the creature.

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  She let her big shield sit just outside her body, while moving her small shield and knife to get ready for the creature's attacks. The fish thing started off poking at her with a trident, so she slapped the weapon away with her buckler. It wasn't a heavy hit though, so the creature was able to get off another stab. This time Shiina slapped it into the meaty ground where the barbs got stuck.

  With a quick move she slashed the creature's hamstrings as it tried to pull the trident out. Pain caused it to lose its balance, and she moved a little forwards to stab its chest. A flailing arm turned that into a stomach stab, so Shiina politely gutted the monster. With half its entrails on the ground it didn't resist her killing blow.

  Turning back to the fight it looked like things were getting cleaned up. Delilah was healing the bruises that the fishmen had managed to inflict while the rest of the group was finishing off the wounded that were still aggressive.

  Shiina let her focus wander in search of hidden valuables. There'd been a few chests along the way and even more hidden pockets of pearls, but there didn't seem to be anything here. "Drat. No money."

  Thadius shrugged. "Yeah this is a pretty low return dungeon. We'll get to carve out steaks or something when we leave I guess. Anyway the boss is up ahead. It's a giant spine mite. Kinda flat body, armored, with big spikey antennae and two claws. It's got a nasty jump too, so keep an eye it doesn't land on you."

  "Right." Shiina kept a spare escape tendril in the back of her mind so she could call it up fast. She then moved to check the last passage. The final door seemed safe and there weren't any traps on the lead up. Good.

  She gave Thadius a side eye when he moved through without officially declaring the place trap free, but it didn't really matter. Instead of complaining she moved to the back of the group.

  The bosses room was a large pulsing chamber. Wind and water rushed through in streams from pores in the sides, while an alcove in the back suggested a treasure area. The boss was sitting in the middle of the room, waiting.

  As the guards moved in and started to surround it, it began to quiver. Second later it rose up, revealing the creature had been partially burrowed into the floor. It was about twenty feet long, and had antenna just as long up front. In addition two big claws and a multitude of clawed legs scrabbled in the air in anticipation.

  Shiina decided she wasn't a fan.

  With the beast mostly surrounded the guards started moving in, but the first attack came from the creature. The two thick barbed antenna swept backwards from the creatures face, forcing Primus and Ahmed to block with their heavy weapons.

  As the two staggered the rest of the guard group charged. Shiina couldn't keep track of all the attacks, but she was pretty sure most of them drew blood and a few of the creatures legs got severed.

  The thing did a spring bending dip and push and flew into the air, straight towards the entrance. Delilah squeaked as Shiina grabbed her and threw a psuedopod where the monster had been. With a mighty pull she flung herself under the jumping arthropod landing in the meaty depression it had carved out while it slammed into the floor where they'd been.

  The guard squad rushed after the beast, using their heavy weapons to land hits. This time the monster jumped and spun in place, lashing out with its pincers, but Thadius and Erudine had already dodged. In return one of the mantis arms got a solid crack from a two handed sword.

  Shiina was starting to edge forwards when the spine mite spasmed and shuddered before dropping to the ground twitching. She wasn't sure if it was dead to start, but the hacking that followed probably sealed the deal if it wasn't.

  One boss defeated.

  The guards let out a cheer. "Alright! Time to finish the mission and head back. Wasn't too bad," Thadius said.

  Shiina let her focus shift. Delilah was healing up the bruises caused by flailing limbs and antenna. There was a chest and some cash in the alcove. No traps on the chest. And the alcove-

  She saw the holes in the ceiling just as Thadius walked past her towards the treasures. "Stop! Don't-"

  The razor worm burst from the ceiling and stretched down, mouth open. Shiina stretched out her arm with as much strength as she could. The poisoned dagger hit the skin and punched through into the creature right below the head. The purple death stain started to expand....

  The razor worm still buried its maw into Thadius' neck. Blood burst out as the dog man lost the left side of his neck.

  A flash of light burned the creature in half and the worm collapsed.

  And so did Thadius.

  Shiina pulled herself over as fast as she could. The bite had gone almost half way through, and blood was leaking out of holes all over. She had no idea what to do.

  Delilah was there a moment later. The half elf started a spell, then stopped and shook her head.

  Slowly the other guards joined them. Shiina wanted to hide away, but she had to face them. "I'm sorry. I was too late."

  Erudine shook her head slowly. "You warned him to watch out for traps." She knelt by her fallen comrade and moved his half cape over the wound. "Damn it Thadius. We were so close...."

  They'd finished the dungeon, but it didn't feel like a victory anymore.

  "Seventy percent of adventurers die in their first ten dungeon runs. In places with very heavy training requirements, that number drops to about twenty percent, with another third quitting for something safer, like the army."

  That's the first paragraph of the adventurer's study book the Iron Eye guild gives to people. And it's something Mali drilled into me constantly. For that matter I got to see it on some level. Plenty of parties came back out of the dungeon missing one member, or with people saying they were going to quit.

  It's a completely different thing to watch someone die personally. Especially someone in your party. Even if it was a temporary thing.

  I'm dungeon born. Dungeons are my home and I will probably never stop delving. But if you have any hesitation? Quit now. If you're fine with beating up dungeons half your level and don't want to challenge something hard? Not a bad career. The only way to fail at dungeon delving is to die.