The last time Pos braved the second floor of the Tomb of Ten Thousand Techniques, a dungeon boss appeared. The fight forced him out for weeks, and his shoulder still ached. So, he wasn’t exactly skipping with excitement to be back. To his relief, his worries were for nothing.

  The second floor of the Tomb of Ten Thousand Techniques was… honestly, kind of dead.

  Not literally, but relatively so. Several adventuring parties were waiting for their turn near the Rooms, and two of them stood by the central pillar. One of them was his new party, but that was it. Compared to the last time he was on the second floor, this was empty.

  “Guess we don't have to worry about the Tortoise today,” Pos laughed as he strolled up to the party.

  The Adventurer Guild had shuffled the deck a bit for this delve. He was still stuck with Ferdinand, the annoying and smug little halfling [Thief], plus Bazel and Fabiana, but with everybody still traumatized by the Tortoise Boss, the Guild decided to throw in two more members for good measure; Barwin, a seasoned human [Swordsman], and Umdar, the dwarven [Knight].

  “After all that blood and guts, even morons know not to poke the dungeon core again,” Ferdinand shot back with a grin.

  Pos still didn’t like the halfling thief, but he let the light-hearted comment go because he agreed with the [Thief]. It was a lesson learned for everyone.

  “Let’s get this over with,” Pos muttered, jerking his chin toward the Rooms.

  Bazel, always the leader, asked, “You sure you don’t want to rest a little?” However, the human [Dragoon] was already hauling himself up, ready to go. He was totally just asking for the sake of it.

  “No need. I rather keep on going.” Pos said, already checking his gear, along with the rest of the party.

  Barwin, fussing with his helmet, piped in, “Not gonna lie, I’m all for a first clear, but are we actually going in there?”

  Pos glanced at the middle room, the only one nobody had managed to clear yet. It was honestly strange. Adventurers know that dungeons give good treasures to the first person to clear a room, and it was unusual that no one had done so after so long. Just another example on how deadly the Tomb of Ten Thousand Techniques was.

  “Why not? What’s the worst that could happen?” Ferdinand cackled.

  “Oh, you know. The usual,” Barwin replied with a roll of his eyes. “Death, destruction, a beast Boss of some kind melting us into a pile of goo.

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  “Yeah, so, the fun stuff,” Ferdinand tossed a dagger up, catching it deftly with two fingers as if it was nothing.

  Pos was not surprised by the display of skill. After some time with the halfling, Pos realized he was a showoff. His feeling about the halfling wasn’t unanimous. Fabiana let out a sigh, but Pos caught the hint of a smile. The [Sage] had a soft spot for the halfling for some reason. No matter the species, females never made sense to Pos.

  Bazel, all serious, cut in. “You all know why we’re here. Pos needs a level for that new Dungeon Technique. Getting a first clear will help with that.” He shot a look at Pos, but it was Umdar who replied.

  “He just leveled. Might take longer for him to gain another.”

  “More work for us, and it’s a chance for us to get some decent treasure out of this.” Fabiana chimed in, trying to look on the bright side of things.

  The party headed up to the room marked ‘2’. Pos could feel every eye in the place watching. Everybody knew what they were about to try. “All right, let’s do this,” someone said. Maybe it was Pos, maybe not. It didn’t matter.

  With a collective deep breath, the party went in. It was dark. Not just dim or low-light, but full-on darkness. Pos did not mind. Dwarven eyes could see as well in the dark as in daylight, but some members of the party needed help. Fabiana raised her staff, whispered a spell, and a white light bloomed at the end of it.

  The tunnel stretched ahead, and the party kept going till the space opened up into this enormous cavern. Now, Pos had been to the other two Rooms on the second floor, and they were all fake sunlight, lakes, and forests. This Room was not. Instead, the room was dimly lit by moss-covered torches, and in the middle were four dinky wooden huts. Each had a path leading up, just wide enough for two people to stroll side by side.

  Pos shook his head. “Bet you there’s a dumb jigsaw puzzle in each hut.”

  “Only a complete idiot would take that bet!” Ferdinand snorted, already inching forward. “Not very subtle, and way more obvious than the other two Rooms.”

  Once again, Pos had to admit that the half-pint idiot was right. The other Rooms had lakes and forests, this one was just four huts. Honestly, Pos liked this better. Underground caves should look like caves, not a forest from the World Above.

  Bazel pointed at the paths, “The ambiance may be different, but it looks like the usual deal. The paths split us up like before.” He glanced around. “You all know your teams.”

  They did.

  Pos strolled up the path with Umdar; Bazel and Barwin peeled off in a different direction, and Ferdinand and Fabiana walked along a third together. Those two were the ones the party was counting on to solve the puzzle.

  Pos and Umdar made their way to their hut. When they got to the door, they glanced back. Everyone else had arrived at their own doors too. Bazel gave a nod, and the whole party slipped inside.

  The inside of the hut was tiny. Sometimes dungeons hid a nugget of gold in their rock, making spaces that are way bigger on the inside than the outside, but not here. There was no spatial magic stretching these walls here, just a cramped little spot with a single table jammed in the middle. On top of the table was a wooden box.

  Pos knew the puzzle had to be inside.

  Pos barely had time to blink before an image flickered onto the wall. It was not the usual painting of a portrait or a boring landscape. No, it was food. A bowl with a fish head swimming in thick brown gravy surrounded by chunks of carrot, mushrooms, and red chilli slices. Pos could feel his mouth watering at the image. He could practically taste it. His stomach started a mutiny. Then, the message appeared.