The first floor''s boss was actually a collective: the chief, the shaman, and the furball, that was most likely the dogpack''s Alpha. If you coat a wrecking ball in fur, it is still a furball, no?


    Either way, the enormous furball – including corresponding sized fangs – launched itself directly at the party as soon as they entered the room. Bianca, however, was a good wall and intercepted it with her shield – sliding back a few centimeters from the impact. The shaman, in turn, started to cast something. Not, that Prof had time to idly look at the spectacle, he had to face the chief almost immediately. The floor boss – the chief, that is, all three enemies together were considered the floor boss – was a good match for him. On one hand, he had a club with vicious stone splinters embedded in it, on the other hand, a long bone with a serrated edge manufactured to it.


    After subconsciously evading the double attack, Prof realized, his [Evade] was still way higher, than his [Block] or [Parry]. The muscle memory of the formed still overpowered the knowledge of the latter two. What did his teacher say? He had to make a conscious effort to use the two with such a disparity in the level of Skill.


    Fine.


    All right, conscious effort made, club blocked with Armorbane, bone sword parried with The Chopper!


    At least, that was the idea.


    The blocking went all right, but obviously, parrying a long weapon with the short Chopper wasn''t exactly a good idea. Or his Skill was too low to do it properly. Luckily, his armor deflected most of the damage. After getting the measure of the chief in a few deflected attacks, Prof realized two things. First, he forgot the use [Observe] again, and second, the chief''s Skill was markedly lower, than his own.


    He quickly observed the chief, and the intel from the guide was confirmed, he was a Level 5 Elite. Quite a low Level for a single opponent, but with the other two still a danger for dungeon runners. At least for dungeon runners, who weren''t such awesomely high Level as the party. Or so well-rounded and highly skilled.


    Well, sitting around Level 7 wasn’t exactly awesomely high Level, even on Arkadia, and the party wasn’t that well rounded out, with some essential positions missing, but at least they were reasonably well skilled.


    Prof, who was actually overskilled for his Level, started to use his Skill to counterattack and push the chief back. Unfortunately, his Armorbane was more or less useless against Stone Age Humans, since they hadn''t invented armor to bane yet. The chief only wore the fur of a bear or something like that. Prof refused to acknowledge the similarities. He wore pants and boots and took a bath every now or then! The difference was huge! He even spoke languages and was well-versed in the [Etiquette] of three cultures! He was almost a high socialite! At least compared to a man, who grew up in a cave and refused to ever leave it!


    Weaving through a few of the chief''s attacks, blocking and parrying a few others with Armorbane, he finally landed a Critical Hit with The Chopper. The bonuses for Critical Chance and Critical Damage came in handy, as the chief''s left arm flew off from that one hit. The damage was high enough in itself to kill the leading arm behind the cavemen tribe to collapse, dead. Prof debated to crack some puns in the line, he single-handedly defeated his first Human but refrained – his friends already told him, he wasn''t exactly funny and should leave joking to Mini. True, she came in handy, when it came to joking, and was a bit touchy, if someone invaded her turf.


    By the time, Prof finished with his cave-dwelling, primitive alter-ego, the other two-thirds of the floorboss was also defeated. The wolfdog was hacked apart by Bianca and Mini, and the shaman was expertly backstabbed by Sharpclaw. Prof never learned, what the shaman was trying to cast. The guide provided a list of its favorite spells, but the exact one depended on the situation.


    Anyways, it was time for looting!


    Not, that there was much to loot. Most of the value came from the wolf-dog-thingy’s fur and parts, and the chief’s bear-fur. The weaponry and some knickknacks were just pocket change – according to the guide, the shaman sometimes had a magical wand too, but unfortunately, the party didn’t luck out this time. Even so, the salvage came up to five silver or so. Even split four ways, and not exactly much, the first floor’s loot was still a welcome addition to their coffers.


    The second floor was almost a repetition of the first one, but the MOB had evolved. The cavemen entered the Copper Age there! A little less shabby structures, a little bit stronger enemies, a little bit more degenerated (but better trained) wolves, and copper weaponry.


    The dungeon obviously made an effort to follow the economic evolution too, while the first floor''s humans could only be described as normal hunters and gatherers, the Copper Age folks on the second floor had the beginnings of agriculture. Or at least, the dungeon gave them the trappings: a few patches of half-wild grain undulating in the non-existent wind.


    As it transpired, the grain wasn''t undulating, waving, and doing other things, it usually does in the wind, but was moving because the marginally better-trained almost-dogs were hiding in it, and were trying to flank the party. Cunning beasts.


    Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    Even if the devious almost-dogs had managed to ambush the party – which they hadn’t – Prof and friends would have been fine. Probably. Higher Levels on Arkadia didn’t mean higher Stats, but higher Skills – a Level 1 dog had the same biting strength as a Level 100 dog, the latter could only bite more skilfully. The current dogs weren’t even high Level – Level 6 Normals – and the armor, the party was wearing was by far enough to protect them from simple dogs.


    As it were, the dogs were ambushed themselves. Sharpclaw knifed one, Mini shot two others, and the other four were quickly defeated by Prof and Bianca. Four decently Skilled people with decent Levels were probably overkill for the first two floors of any dungeon, Prof was almost sure, he would be able to make a solo run at least this far, without being really in danger.


    It was interesting, however, that no coins or valuable stuff were dropped – his two one-floor dungeons almost flooded him with currency, gold, and silver, but the latter two didn''t drop even one iron bit. Cheap, miserly dungeons! Not, that they had to pay from their own pockets! It was all magic! All those poor people, running dungeons, being in mortal danger, and what do they receive? Dogmeat, pelts, and junk!


    The Copper Age village in the second cavern at least gave them a little bit of workout – the MOB had a modicum of tactical and weapon training, and their copper-tipped spears made them a little bit more dangerous, than the cavemen above. Oh, and some enemies even had something, that could be called armor.


    Even their marginally better gear couldn’t protect them from the party basically walking over them. Sharpclaw assassinated the one present Elite, Bianca opened the way for Prof through the rudimentary phalanx the MOB put up, and as soon as he was inside the line, he wreaked havoc. He still had some inhibition against killing sapients – even if they were just dumb dungeon creatures – but the reason, why Mini picked this particular dungeon became clearer: she tried to build Prof’s mental resistance.


    Prof wasn''t exactly sure if that was a good thing. On one hand, he was perfectly comfortable with not killing sapients, but on the other hand, Arkadia was a dangerous place, without much in the way of law enforcement protecting people camping out in the wilderness. Prof couldn''t base his continued survival on others defeating every last criminal looking his way.


    Well, anyway, at least the loot was better on the second floor. Not by much, but according to the guide, the local smiths paid good money for the copper.


    Contrary to the first floor, the second had a labyrinth with a few traps strewn around. It was time for Sharpclaw to shine. After all, it wasn''t a good idea to be illuminated while trying to sneak behind your enemy to put a dagger into his back. Finding traps was actually one of her tagged Skills, and knifing folks was just a hobby she was very good at.


    The traps weren''t exactly high-tech, nothing fancy like invisible bridges or sawblades, or even a rolling boulder, but barely concealed pitfalls (however, with strategically placed trip ropes, so an unwary adventurer would faceplant directly into the pitfalls) or big, swinging stones. It was an insult to Humanity''s ingenuity when it came to killing everything else! Prof was almost certain, that Copper Age Humans could build better traps.


    To add even more insult, the Floorboss wasn''t a Minotaur (Copper Age labyrinths came with inbuilt Minotaurs, no?), but another collective Boss in the form of three scantly clad beautiful females. True, the other humans in the dungeon weren''t overdressed either (maybe another reason, Mini chose this particular dungeon), but the three girls barely wore anything. In fact, every strip club would throw them out because of their indecency. There was probably some gimmick to it since they were alluringly wiggling on some spread-out bearskins.


    “Oh, yeah, now we are talking!” the gimmick worked wonders in Mini’s case


    “Urgh… Seriously? This is a disgusting display!” but not so much for Bianca


    “Ssstab femalessss?” or Sharpclaw.


    As for Prof, he was intelligent and stable enough, with enough willpower (even his Character Parchment said so with the entries for Intelligence, Emotional Stability, and Willpower) to not fall into the obvious trap. Was this dungeon a pervert or an idiot? No sane person would go for a round or two in the middle of a dungeon, especially not with dungeon MOB.


    “Let''s see… You, the blonde. You are first. You know what, the brunette and the redhead can join in too." Well, Mini was insane. And careless, and a few other things too. Or, maybe, she was just confident enough to overpower three enemies by wrestling in the sheets.


    “Yes, please, Sharpclaw. You may start stabbing. Bianca, you too.”


    The battle was over in only a few thrusts of hard implements – the collective Boss was unarmoured, to begin with, and only had hidden knives. Prof wondered, why this Boss was responsible for most of the casualties in the whole dungeon, as the guide stated. Clearly, Ostwaldland couldn''t have that many horny teenagers to fall for the obvious!


    Well, Ostwaldland didn’t have that many horny idiots. Anymore. It’s called natural selection, after all.


    “Why did you do that?!” Mini pouted “I was just going to have some fun!”


    “Miss Minerva, this is low even for you!” Bianca exclaimed


    “You do realize, this was a trap? In a dungeon? That they were the floor boss?"


    “Of course, I know! I’m not stupid! However, you fail to see the point. First, I wanted to have fun. Secondly, they were relatively low-Level, I could have survived everything, they could have done. And thirdly, neither of you three were going to participate anyway, if something went wrong, you, my good apprentices, could have saved your magnificent master! They looked so sweet! You do realize, the blood of certain MOB is a delicacy? You have ruined it!”


    By this time, everyone knew enough of Mini to not engage in a discussion about what normal people considered a good idea. Such discussions were mostly useless and only gave the Vampire validation. And attention. Or whatever Mini was aiming at.


    With a nod, the three apprentices started to strip the room bare – not that they had to do much. Especially with the Boss. The loot wasn’t much – skimpy “underwear” (Mini pocketed those; they fit into a breast pocket), bone knives, and the three rugs, made of dead bears. Plus a few trinkets. It was underwhelming for such an insidious and deadly encounter…


    After a quick rest, they set out for the final floor.