Walking down the first floor after you have seen the second tends to shift your perspective of it. As in, it soon feels like any dive on the first floor was the easiest adventure you have ever done. Nothing happened- nothing noteworthy, at least.

This day the small party trekked through the first floor without incident too. And the deeper Helissent, Reaper and Thunderstepper ventured, the more they saw. There was even a guild’s base camp at one of the entrances to the Furnace. After stopping at said base camp for a bit they were able to exchange a few coins for water. And then they continued to head towards the second floor. Their path was retractable, easy and nothing like their earlier adventures.

“This is…” Helissent began. “Weird.”

“Why hasn’t anything happened? Why isn’t anything attacking us?” Thunderstepper asked, his tone rhetorical. “I tell you what. Because for the first time ever we’re actually using the bloody roads.”

“Wait.” Helissent said, and she thought about it for a bit before cursing. “Worms. You’re right. We have always ventured far from the paved routes, that’s why.”

“It’s boring.” Reaper said. His two party members immediately glared at him. “What? We saw a lot of strange things on the first floor. Things no one ever saw before. Useful things. These routes are not that exciting at all.”

“Then why are we using these routes today?” Thunderstepper asked. He kicked a pebble and saw Reaper flinch, but when he wanted to ask his cousin shot him a glare. Shrugging, he kicked another pebble instead. “No offense, Reaper, but this is not your usual style of dungeon diving.”

“Last time I was on the second floor a cloak covered monster wanted a bone from me.” He answered and picked up the pace. “I value my sanity more. Now, c’mon. The entrance is almost there.”

Helissent was the first to step into the Furnace. When nothing attacked she gingerly trotted further from the door. Once she was a few steps inside she motioned for the others to follow.

“How is she braver than us?”

The descent deeper down into the Stone Furnace felt like the descent into the literal fire-filled bowels of the earth itself. The air this deep down was boiling hot. Each exhale produced puffs of vapor that curled as they sank to vaporize against the floor. It felt like any second down in this horrid place with geysers and fire, something would attack them. And without fail a breathy wheeze came from behind their group. They all quickly turned back around to see a blur of green breathe a tiny bit of fire at them. They blinked at the tiny, green thing that was obviously a wyrm, and then Reaper exploded.

“Are you kidding me?!” Reaper shouted. His voice echoed around the cavern. “I risk my hide and soul looking for actual magic, for actual fire-breathing dragons. Not whatever this is!”

“Your hide, huh?” Thunderstepper shot him a look. He nodded Reaper to the side when the wyrm took a dive at his head. “Really? You draw the line here?”

A thump came from in front of them. The two Coursers looked to see Helissent drag the wyrm to the side of the road and dump it on a sizable coin pile. Then she took the pile with a look that screamed tired exhaustion, leaving a third for the wyrm. “And we leave this so it has to split its attention, like Reaper said we should do. Now can we go? The heat isn’t good for my mane.”

“We’re taking that thing with us, right?”

“Absolutely not.” Helissent snapped. “The captain would skin you alive.”

“Not if you put it loose in the barracks. He’ll never suspect us.”

“...proceed.”