Alan’s first arrow cut into the water a moment after Jake spoke, turning a small portion of that pool red briefly as he managed to hit his target directly.

  There was a brief moment of silence in the wake of the attack before all of the pools they could see began to froth with movement as the snakes came charging out to fight them.

  Icicles, arrows and thorns met the snakes as they tried to close with Jake and his friends, killing them one by one and holding back the relentless tide.

  This approach had failed last time, but they were more accurate and faster now, with harder hitting attacks and fore-knowledge of what to expect.

  The pools of water weren’t far from them, but the snakes were initially slow on the ground, giving them enough time to slaughter however many would appear.

  By the time they’d killed what must have been the thirtieth snake, the ground around them was slick with bloody water, and the steam was thickening around them.

  Cursing, Jake realised what was happening and infused his wand with ice. His control over the infusion and the wand itself had grown, and he’d realised he could shift between a single stronger attack and a cluster.

  It was the same as the wand that Varin had made, but Jake could only do it when adding his own infusion.

  Focusing on large clusters of ice, Jake started sending out bursts from his wand into the oncoming snakes. It wasn’t much, but it would slow down how quickly the steam was growing.

  Despite their best efforts, the time came to fight by hand, with Aspen and Nepthys taking on lunging snakes as Moby flew around overhead.

  A surprisingly powerful draft came from Moby’s wings, helping to push the steam back and reveal the snakes sooner.

  By the time Aspen impaled the final snake of his spear, both he and Nepthys had several burns on their hands and lower legs, but had somehow managed to avoid any true bites.

  Still, even without any bites, the burns were bad enough that they split a healing potion between them.

  With their greater resources, each of them was carrying six potions, as well as several lengths of bandages and a few other odds and ends for potential injuries.

  Jake and Alan kept watch and gather the Wyrdgeld while Gargan helped with applying the potion to the other two. Unsurprisingly, gathering the Wyrdgeld took longer, but once they were done, they pushed on through the blood-soaked tunnel.

  Jake estimated well over seventy snakes had come to them, but the guide warned that the mid-point was also defended by a pair of Lesser Drakes.

  Thankfully, the middle was a raised area with a high ceiling, which would prevent the steam from blocking too much vision and the water from making the stone slippery.

  It also meant they could see the Lesser Drakes well in advance and cut them down with a concentrated barrage of attacks each.

  “Maybe next time this would actually be better,” Aspen said, eyeing the raised section of the tunnel thoughtfully. “The snakes will struggle to get up here, so as long as we kill those two Lesser Drakes quickly, it would work well.”

  “Maybe, but running along that slick stone could be a recipe for disaster,” Alan said, motioning out to the wet tunnel they’d come through.

  “True, but a lot of that is from them coming to attack us.”

  Alan shrugged and nodded. “Good point, maybe we try that next time, then.”

  Jake appreciated their confidence in assuming they’d be repeating this Dungeon. Still, it was easy to let confidence slip them into carelessness.

  “Come on, let’s go see what other surprises are in store for us,” Jake said, getting everyone moving as they marched on through the second half of the tunnel.

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  The lack of snake blood and water on the stone made it much easier to traverse, and Jake realised that Alan had been right. Running on that first part once the blood started to build would have been a bad move.

  Thankfully, they were all quite steady on their feet, and most of the snakes had died before reaching them. He could envision how bad it would be for those who had to fight the snakes up close, though.

  “Right, this next floor is apparently when we see the change in environment that continues on to the end,” Jake said as they got to the end of the humid tunnel. He could feel the sweat running down his back and his clothes were sodden from the thick layer of steam.

  Part of him wanted to push straight on, but he made them stop and drink some water before continuing.

  As soon as they stepped into the eighth floor, he was glad he’d done so.

  The usual tunnel they’d had to now had changed to become a dangerous mix of the two environments they’d seen. Hot, burning rocks were studded in the walls and ceiling, giving off an intense amount of heat.

  At the same time, the small puddles they’d seen before were present again, but instead of steaming water, they held small amounts of molten rock that glowed a fierce orange.

  The guide called it lava and warned heavily against any contact with it.

  Jake wasn’t stupid, so he was fairly sure he could have figured that part out on his own, but he hadn’t realised how much there would be.

  Individually, each pool held only a small amount, but the scattered pools matched what they’d seen for the water before, which meant they’d be throughout the whole floor.

  That was a lot of opportunities for someone to get their feet melted.

  Proceeding carefully they moved along the tunnel, trying to balance being wary of their surroundings with the urge to move quickly and be done with it all.

  That particular issue was highlighted when Jaked wiped his face and flicked away some of the sweat, only for it to hit the wall and sizzle against the rock.

  Realising that the heat was actually worse than he’d anticipated, Jake paused long enough to make some more ice for everyone.

  Barely a minute later, they reached the first chamber of this new floor, and the ice had already melted. Resisting the urge to make more, Jake looked over what was waiting for them.

  The chamber was three times the size of the one from the sixth floor, and held large rocky boulders with chunks of obsidian and small puddles of lava.

  A small pool of lava sat bubbling in the centre, occasionally spitting out a small globule of molten rock.

  “This is a lot more imposing than that forest Dungeon,” Alan said softly, looking concerned by what lay before them.

  “You’re not wrong, but there’s only two Lesser Drakes and eight Fire Lizards, that’s not that much worse than before,” Jake said, pointing out the two basking Enhanced creatures.

  “I feel like we’re missing something,” Nepthys said, eyeing the chamber with clear suspicion.

  “Well, only one way to find out,” Jake said with a shrug that the others echoed as they got into their positions. Once they were ready, they unleashed an opening barrage on the Enhanced monsters, killing one and wounding the other.

  The wounded drake leapt from its basking spot and charged them, the lizards close behind, only to have an arrow sprout from its eye as Alan took his second shot.

  Alan’s Ability that exploited weaknesses allowed the arrow to punch deep into the drake’s head, killing it instantly. At the same time, the rest of them fell on the eight lizards and slaughtered them with ease.

  Now they were at the peak of the second tier, even a group of Beast strength monsters wasn’t a serious threat.

  Flicking the blood from his blade and wiping the rest away, Jake carefully picked his way further into the chamber, steering clear of the puddles of lava as best he could.

  A sharp quack from Moby and a sudden feeling of danger was all the warning Jake had before one of the deeper puddles exploded into a shower of lava and a serpent lunged out at him.

  Cursing, Jake threw himself aside, avoiding the snapping jaws of the snake, before hissing in pain as droplets of molten rock sprinkled onto his legs.

  Jake instinctively reached down to get it off him, only to stop at the last moment. This was bad enough, but he couldn’t afford to hurt his hands.

  Looking up, he saw that Nepthys had taken the serpent’s head with a swift cut of her longer blade and was rushing to Jake’s side, already pulling out a healing potion.

  “No!” Gargan shouted as he hurried over to join them. “Get it off him first!”

  Grimacing, Nepthys stowed the potion and grabbed her waterskin. Thankfully, with how much they were drinking, they were all carrying at least some of their water on their belts.

  Water sizzled as it poured over the cooling pieces of molten rock that were burning into Jake. The pain was excruciating, and it was all he could do to stay still and let them work.

  As soon as she could, Nepthys scraped the cooling rock from Jake’s blistered and burnt leg before pouring the potion over his injuries.

  The blissful numbing effect spread up Jake’s leg and he slumped back, breathing heavily.

  “Imagine if it had managed to bite him as well,” Alan said, shivering at the thought. “This is a dangerous place, even by Dungeon standards.”

  “Not all Dungeons are equal, but I have a feeling that this is a taste of what we will expect at the third tier,” Gargan said, helping Jake back to his feet.

  Jake was unsteady at first, but the potion was doing its job already. “Come on, we need to keep moving. We can’t waste our time here.”

  Nodding, they slowly started to move through the rest of the chamber, watching the lava pools warily as they went.