“Since dungeons have stopped changing, there are info brokers selling guides to the dungeons,” Max said as he walked into the dungeon antechamber. “I bought the guide for the Clockwork Catacombs and read it. I won’t tell you everything it said though. Since this is an interview for Asta and Giovanni, I’ll only intervene if I think someone is in danger.”

  The tall Nordic woman and the short Italian guy gave him serious nods. They wore mismatched and damaged armor, clearly hoping that joining Max’s party would get them better protection. Gus gave them a smug look and downed a potion he had made. His own armor was actually worse than theirs, but it didn’t come with him when he transformed so it didn’t matter.

  Gus’s skin rippled and his muscles bulged. He grew to seven feet tall, now the tallest in the group. His face was hideous, but still held hints of Gus’ facial features. All of them were grateful that the transformation came with a loincloth.

  Max pulled out a pair of war hammers from his belt, a huge one for Gus, and a regular sized one for himself. He enjoyed the look of shock on Asta and Giovanni’s faces. He was looking forward to when they realized he had his belt completely full of tools charged with magic spells. Several of them had Augmented spells too.

  Gus and Asta stood at the door into the dungeon. He held the overlarge hammer and she held her tower shield and a mace. Max and Giovanni lined up behind them with Bisrat bringing up the rear.

  “Hold up.” Giovanni said. “The first room is sometimes the worst. Lemme get ready.”

  He sprayed a mist of water into the air, which quickly froze into snow. The snow then compacted into three sharp spikes that hovered near his shoulder.

  Max nodded with respect. That was a pretty neat trick. Gus slapped the button on the hexagon shaped door and it slid to the side.

  The room inside was about thirty feet wide with workbenches studded about. There were copper metal objects strewn about the place, pipes, gears, and pistons. Some of the gears were four feet thick, big enough to obstruct vision into the room.

  “Contact left,” Giovanni said and pointed as he fired his three ice spikes.

  The spikes sped across the room, shattering on the carapace of a four armed insect person.

  “Stop!” Max yelled and put his hand on Giovanni’s shoulder.

  He gave Max a look and said, “Why? We gotta kill the bug.”

  “Cus that’s our contact. I mean that’s the guy that we need to talk to.”

  While they talked, the insect person had ducked behind one of the workbenches. He grabbed a small saw and sent it spinning through the air. It hit Max’s helmet and deflected off. The padding on his armor completely absorbed the impact and he didn’t even feel it. The blade stuck into the wooden ceiling.

  Max ducked behind a bench and motioned for everyone to join him. When they were safe, Max yelled out, “Sir! We aren’t here to fight you. The boss sent us to clear out the jammed gears.”

  There was a pause and then a chittering voice said, “If you aren’t here to fight, then why did you attack?”

  “My coworker’s an idiot.”

  Giovanni protested while the insect person laughed. Max gestured for Giovanni not to take it seriously. He was trying to get the other guy to calm down with humor. It was a lot to convey since neither knew sign language, but the translation magic did the heavy lifting.

  Max cleared his throat. “If I stand up to come talk to you, do you promise not to attack?”

  “Yes. But only you. The rest have to stay over there. I don’t trust you guys.”

  “You got it,” Max said and walked over.

  He didn’t fully trust the dungeon born person, but he did trust the new Igra armor if the guy tried anything. It should fully protect him against non magical attacks, as he had just proven.

  As Max walked closer, the guy slowly stood up still holding sawblades in two of his hands. He was the same type of ant/lobster they had talked to in the genetic library. Max held up his hands to show he was unarmed. Words popped up over the top of his head.

  Clockworks Mechanic

  “Sorry about my coworker. I’ll keep him in line. I just want to get the job done. I understand you have some gears that are stuck?”

  The ant/lobster watched him carefully as he said, “Yeah, we got some stuck gears on the third floor. Sixth floor too. If the boss really sent you, he would have told you about the punctured steam tanks too.”

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  “Yep. And he said you would have the material to repair the tanks and pipes, along with grease to get the gears moving.”

  “You’ll have to clear out the blockages first, but yeah, I can get you the stuff.” the man said and walked over to a different workbench.

  He moved some of the junk out of the way and handed Max an oil can with a long nozzle, and a stack of thin metal sheets.

  “The patch sheets have glue on the back. Just stick em on the pipe and hold them there until it stays. You got eight patches and there are at least six holes. If you find and fix all of them, the boss said you could have a reward. I hope I don’t have to tell you how to use the oil can.”

  Max smiled. “I think we can figure it out. See you later, Mechanic.”

  “One more thing. There are a few beasts that wandered in from outside. They are all vulnerable to heat. Normally the steam keeps them out, but of course, everything’s leaking right now.”

  “Thanks for the advice.” Max said. He didn’t know the thing about fire, too bad they didn’t have a flamethrower. He would have to tell the information broker about it and get a discount.

  He tucked the can and metal sheets into his dimensional belt and walked over to the rest of the party. He explained the situation and they headed over to the next door.

  Giovanni said, “How did you know that was a person instead of a monster?”

  “We’ve been in a dungeon with an ant lobster person like that. They were very helpful. If I had to guess, every training dungeon has one. If you kill them, the dungeon is harder, if you talk to it and agree to work, the dungeon is easier,” Max said. “Plus, that’s what the guide I read said.”

  “You could’ve told me.”

  Max shrugged. “I told you I knew stuff I was withholding to make it a better interview. Now I know you have a quick trigger, but you follow commands well. Once you are a full party member, I’ll tell you everything I know.”

  They lined up to the door to the next room. Gus said something garbled, then spoke into their minds.

  “Don’t go inside after I open the door. I want to have the monsters come to us. It’s easier to defend the doorway than attacks from all sides.”

  Max shivered. He was proud of Gus for taking the initiative to explain tactics, but Bell cards gave him goosebumps. It might be a trauma response. He wondered if mana healed minds as well as it healed bodies.

  Gus pressed the hexagon button and the door slid to the side. Asta took a step forward and then pulled herself back. No monsters attacked at first. Gus encouraged them with a guttural roar.

  Two monsters came racing in, covered in matted hair, like running hairballs. Four legs poked out of the fur with each limb ending in copper hooves. They were also two feet tall. Gus moved to smash one with his hammer and Bisrat pulled out a stiletto.

  Asta slammed her shield forward and bounced both monsters backward. They tumbled five feet back, fowling both Gus and Bisrat’s attacks. Max’s Insight triggered as they rolled to a stop.

  Rabid Furball Level 2

  Rabid Furball Level 3

  Max opened his mouth to shout a warning, but Bisrat beat him to it. She shouted, “Don’t let them bite you, they are diseased.”

  The Rabid Furballs got back up in a flash, seemingly unhurt. They raced forward again. This time Gus and Bisrat got the monsters before Asta could get to them. Both monsters died from a single hit.

  They waited for a few moments in case any other monsters attacked.

  “Good start everyone. Asta, if you are going to bounce all of the monsters back, let us know. Otherwise try to hold them within range of our attacks.” Max said.

  They carefully crept into the room. It was a steampunk fever dream. Copper pipes snaked up most of the walls and enormous gears were attached to shafts that pierced the ceiling. Random gauges and dials studded the pipes, all of them showing a needle in the green. The air was hot and muggy.

  No monsters jumped out at them as they swept the room. Max took the easy win and led them to the next room.

  It was a repeat of the last room. Two furballs raced out of a room full of stuck gears. Max checked for leaks or boilers he could repair, but found none. They moved on. The next room was another repeat, with three furballs instead of two.

  Max let everyone have a shot at taking down a monster. Gus and Bisrat were flawless, killing theirs with one blow again. Asta took three blows to kill hers, her mace skills were lacking. Giovanni was able to slow down a monster with a trio of ice spears, but had to use a hammer to finish it off. Max tried to get fancy with a golf swing, but the blood spatter was anything but refined.

  Max was beginning to wonder if there were any different monsters in this dungeon. The eighth room held six Rabid Furballs, but they were easily dispatched like all the others. The ninth room held something new.

  Nothing attacked when Gus shouted, so they carefully crept into the room. A Rabid Furball lay to their right, frost covering its fur. Bisrat threw a knife at it, but it didn’t stir. A low hiss came from the right of the room, a broken steam pipe. The room was so much colder than the last, ice covered spots along the right wall.

  Max caught movement out of the corner of his eye. Something white was standing behind the pillars on the other side of the room. He tilted to try and see around the huge shaft. He couldn’t see the whole monster, but it was enough for Inspect to trigger.

  Frozen Soul Level 7

  It was tall and thin, made entirely of ice. It was like Slenderman had frozen solid. This monster was the main reason he chose this dungeon for the interview. He needed to see how Asta and Giovanni handled an ice monster.

  “Frozen Soul behind that shaft,” Max said and pointed. “Asta, Giovanni, I want you two to come from the left and the rest of us will come from the right. I want you to try and kill it, but we’ll jump in if you need the help.”

  Asta looked nervous, but Giovanni gave him a curt nod and pushed her forward. They crept around gears and pipes, keeping an eye on the monster. Max and the others snuck around the other side, as quiet as possible. The temperature dropped as they drew closer.

  When they were fifteen feet away, the Frozen Soul burst from cover, racing towards Asta. It was six feet tall and thin as a broomstick. Its hands and eyes leaked clouds of white fog. Asta held out her shield and braced herself.

  The monster stopped a few feet away and slashed its claws through the air. A wave of frozen mist shot forward. Giovanni leaned out from behind the Nordic woman and attacked at the same time.