The party walked down the downward tunnel to the first level of the dungeon, if not for their three fire mages creating some fire in their hands it would be near impossible to see. They were walking in a diamond formation, Arthur was taking point with Feyrith and Lilia walking behind him, then came Tess and Claire, followed by Elijah and Kathyln, and finally Curtis mounted on Grawder taking the rear. This formation was decided upon before leaving Xyrus, so that way they knew how to get into formation quickly. Curtis did complain a bit at first, stating that due to his and Grawders heightened senses that they should be in front to keep a lookout for attacks. Arthur understood the logic, but argued that those senses would be best served at the rear so they could give a warning of attacks from the rear.

As they walked further down into the dungeon, instead of feeling colder as they had expected, the air actually got warmer and more humid. Kathyln brought the temperature down a little, and had Lilia create a little breeze to spread the cooler air around to everyone. Everyone enjoyed the little reprieve from the hot humid air. Although insignificant, Arthur was curious as to why Kathyln didn't ask Tess to help. While at Xyrus Kathyln barely spoke to many of them in the first place, but seemed to get along with Tess to a degree that he would have considered them friends, whereas Lilia she almost never spoke with. However over the last few days Arthur had noticed that Kathyln had been going out of her way to avoid Tess. Normally Arthur wouldn't care about this kind of behavior and write it off as childish drama, however they were in the beast glades now diving into a dungeon, so any problems with team cohesion could lead to someone getting hurt, or worse.

After a few more minutes they could see a dim light up ahead, marking the entrance to the first level.

"Alright everyone get ready, the first level is just up ahead. Just like how we trained, leave enough room to fight, but don't spread too far out. And under no circumstances are you to break formation," Arthur reminded everyone as if he was the leader of a military unit.

Nobody replied, but they didn't need to, they all knew what to do, and Arthur knew that. Most of them did find it a little annoying that he went over this again, but they all understood. During the training on one of the practice fields at the academy, Arthur drilled these same directions into them often. The last time they were really truly annoyed at Arthur for this was when Curtis and Grawder were constantly pulling ahead of the party, and several of them were ready to oust Arthur as leader, maybe even from their summer plans.

—————————————————————

Three weeks ago

"STOP!" Arthur yelled from atop a tall rock.

The group was running through formation movement drills on one of the group combat practice fields in preparation for their summer in the beast glades. For the most part everyone was doing well, except Curtis and Grawder who were still pulling ahead too far.

"Now what?" Curtis groaned as Arthur jumped down from his rock.

"You are all suddenly under attack from a giant mana beast! Tess, create a wind barrier around the party!" Arthur said sternly as he walked to Curtis.

"Arthur I can't, Curtis is too far away," Tess replied.

"Create the barrier, just protect as many as you can. Hold it for five seconds then release," Arthur replied in a softer tone yet still loud enough for her to hear, just as he arrived at Curtis and Grawder.

Tess did as she was told and a swirling vortex of wind surrounded the rest of the party. Five seconds later the barrier dissipated.

"I'm sorry everyone, but Curtis and Grawder are dead. The mana beast was too powerful and overwhelmed them," Arthur called out as he glared up at Curtis. "Get back to the beginning and do it again. This time Curtis, stay in formation." Arthur instructed before using wind magic and jumping away.

Everyone groaned at this.

"What is his deal, we aren't military here," Claire groaned.

"I don't know. I know he's trying to look out for us, but he can't expect us to be perfect in just a month's time," Lilia commented.

"He's not looking for perfection, he just wants to prevent careless mistakes," Elijah said in Arthur's defense. "So Curtis, Grawder, stay in formation so we can actually complete this."

"Hey it's not all my fault!" Curtis spat. "Grawders steps are just really big. Besides what are the odds that something like a sneak attack could actually happen?"

"Dire Tombs. We had a nine person party, all of us were A or AA adventurers, most of them were veterans. Arthur, Lucas, and myself had the least amount of experience with three years each. As we were walking a giant worm like mana beast burst out of the ground in front of us blocking our path. As we prepared to attack it just left. Our emitter decided to get out of formation and move on ahead while the rest of us tried to assess what the worm was doing," Elijah closed his eyes as he hung his head. "A few seconds later Arthur grabbed our leader and pulled him in closer as he yelled at Lucas to put up a barrier. The emitter was trapped outside the barrier, and as Arthur yelled to him to get a barrier of his own up there was an eruption. Lucas's barrier wasn't holding well, and another conjurer re-enforced his barrier with her own. The eruption only lasted a few seconds, but by the time it cleared up the emitter," Elijah paused as the mental image came to his mind. "His flesh had melted away. Only his bones and the crystal from his staff remained."

All eyes were wide in horror as they pictured the horrific sight.

"We lost three more adventurers to that dungeon, and all of them to a single mana beast. Arthur told me that was the first time anyone died on a dungeon dive with him," Elijah concluded.

"Were any of them friends of Arthur's?" Kathyln asked.

"No," Elijah said as he shook his head. "We all had just met him a few minutes before we entered the dungeon. But that doesn't mean it doesn't affect you seeing someone die right in front of you. We might not have all been friends, but we all are. Arthur isn't being a perfectionist or jerk, he just doesn't want to lose any of his friends."

Everyone was silent, as those who thought about ousting Arthur had looks of shame in their eyes.

"Come on everyone. Let's do this one more time. And this time without losing anyone," Elijah said as he turned around, leading everyone back to the beginning of what was to be their last run of the evening.

—————————————————————

Present

The young adventurers entered the first level. The initial space was wider than a football field was long, with naturally formed stone pillars that appeared to support the ceiling, where long rope-like webs hung. Water was seeping in from cracks in one of the walls, creating a stream that fed into a pool of water near the exit on the other side. Several fruit bearing vines hung from the walls and pillars. Along the floor were bones, armor, and various weapons scattered around. Several weapons were broken, armor had gashes, and the bones were covered in teeth marks.

As they walked to the exit Arthur took note of the fruit, and was reminded of his time with Silvia. Sylvie, who was riding on his shoulder, gave his head a hug as she could feel the sadness he was containing just below the surface.

Everyone walked with their weapons at the ready as they awaited an attack. It was eerily quiet, with the only noise coming from moving water and their own foot steps. As they approached one of the pillars Arthur took his sword and slashed at two of the vines bearing several pieces of fruit, then put them into his dimensional ring.

"Arthur?" Lilia asked, confused by his action.

"Those two were my favorite," Arthur replied as his sword returned to the ready.

From behind Tess could see Arthur's sword arm, and could see it trembling. But not from fear, but instead from fighting to contain the pain within. Tess knew Arthur had a tendency to bottle up his problems and frustrations, and hide it well. So to see something bothering him to this point she knew it had to be bad, and wished he would let her in so she could help him for a change.

As they were passing the pillar Arthur froze and began looking around, his instincts were kicking in and telling him there was danger. Everyone decided to trust Arthur's instincts and prepared for an attack. As Arthur visually scanned the area Feyrith noticed he was standing next to several of the large berry like fruits growing in the vines. As Feyrith decided to grab one, Arthur started looking up.

"SCREEEEEEEEEE!" A small primate looking mana beast screeched at Feyrith as it dropped down in front of him.

Acting only on instinct Feyrith swung his staff, knocking the mana beast off the pillar and to the ground. Claire, who was standing behind Feyrith, ran her reaper into its head. It only took Claire a second to see the mana beast and know better what they were dealing with. It was a three foot tall primate with black fur, eight eyes, four arms, and a white substance oozing out of the end of its tail.

"SPIDER MONKEYS!" Claire called out.

"ABOVE US!" Arthur added.

As everyone looked up about a dozen spider monkeys screeched as they dropped down from the ceiling. Tess and Lilia quickly cast wind spells above the party that were strong enough to blow the monkeys to the outside of the party, and force those still on the ceiling to shoot threads of web from their tails and swing away. The monkeys charged in, either running along the ground on all sixes, or by swinging in with their webs. The conjurers primarily focused on the ones swinging in while the augmenters covered them against the ones on the ground.

Curtis jumped down from Grawder with both swords drawn, fatally striking down two of the monkeys as he landed, then kicked a third back with a flaming boot. As two monkeys were swinging in, Grawder jumped up and caught one in his mouth and the other forced down with his right paw. The monkey in Grawders mouth was dead before Grawder was back on all fours. He then dropped the one in his mouth and bit off the head of the one under his paw. Tess was switching between wind and plant attacks, and ranged and short distance attacks. Her plant based attacks proved to be truly useful as she used a spell that caught eight monkeys running along the ground then killed them all with a single long horizontal blade of wind. Kathyln was firing arrow size shards of ice with deadly precision, while Elijah was launching sharp stones that were orbiting around him. Lilia and Feyrith took responsibility for the party's defense, and were using wind and water spells to not only keep from too many spider monkeys coming at them at once, but also keeping any webs they fired from reaching them. Arthur and Claire were cutting down monkey after monkey that approached, while employing some elemental magic into their attacks. Claire was channeling wind magic into her reaper, while keeping her fist and feet covered in fire. Through her wind magic every swing cut cleanly through every beast, and would even injure any behind it. Claire could have easily released a wind blade like Tess, but chose to instead conserve her mana against these weaklings in case something bigger came along. Arthur on the other hand was falling back to his fire magic, causing a small wave of fire to move out with every swing and singe any monkeys close enough behind.

They were all doing fairly well against the spider monkeys. Even though they were coming by the dozens this didn't feel the same as it did in widows crypt.

"AHHH," Lilia cried out, getting everyone's attention.

Arthur turned his head and looked in horror as he saw a spider monkey latched onto Lilia's forearm. Despite this mana beast not being very strong, it was feared by even the most powerful mages because of the venom it injected into its prey with the fangs in its mouth.

"TESS, FEYRITH WE NEED SOME BREATHING ROOM NOW! PUSH THEM BACK!" Arthur ordered as he quickly spun around and severed the monkey's head. "ELIJAH, A SPIKED WALL TO HOLD BETWEEN US AND THEM WHEN THEY'RE BACK!" Arthur added as he grabbed monkeys head at the mouth and opened it. As the head was removed Lilia began wobbling like her legs were being turned to jelly. But before she could fall Curtis came out of nowhere and caught her in his arms and lowered her gently, but never released her from his hold.

"Arthur what's wrong with her?" Curtis asked frantically, panic clearly seen in his eyes.

"It's the venom," Arthur replied as he pulled off his belt. "The first stage of its effects numbs the body almost instantly." Arthur put his belt around Lilia's arm right above her elbow and tightened it, making it a turnakit. Visibly spreading from the bite marks was the venom, black in her veins. "We need to get out of here now!" Arthur ordered.

"What did you just do? Is she going to be ok?" Curtis asked frantically.

"My belt will prevent the venom from spreading, but we need to get out of here now so we can properly treat her!" Arthur yelled.

Curtis immediately leaped to his feet, and as if he was reading Arthur's mind, Grawder laid down so Curtis could climb on with Lilia still in his arms.

"We need out of this chamber. Going deeper is a lot closer than going back now. Curtis you and Grawder go as fast as you can out of here, the rest of us will be as close behind as we can. Everybody get some range spells ready to keep those monkeys off them. Elijah, as soon as we're all out close this chamber off like you did in Dire!" Arthur commanded with a powerful, urgent, yet controlled voice.

"Papa do you want me to transform?" Sylvie asked.

"No, we should be ok. Conserve your strength for now," Arthur replied.

As the monkeys started to climb over Elijah's wall, a section of it crumbled, and Grawder burst through. Several of the monkeys tried to attack but were stuck by spells from the rest of the party. Grawder could feel Curtis' urgency and was running at his top speed, putting some significant distance between them and the rest of the party. As they were about to pass through the exit a spider monkey dropped down from the ceiling. However Curtis was ready, and already had one of his swords drawn. Curtis cut through the beast with his flaming sword as he unleashed all the hate that he had for those mana beasts. Once far enough passed the exit Grawder spun around to face any of the mana beasts that may have made it through with them. However everyone else was doing an amazing job and none of the monkeys could make it through. As the rest of the party cleared the opening they spun around and continued firing spells as Elijah spoke an incantation and sealed off the opening.
Once the opening was closed everyone rushed to Lilia as Curtis was sliding off of Grawder while still holding her in his arms.

"Ok Arthur now what?" Curtis asked.

Arthur quickly went down to his knees and pulled a box out of his dimensional ring. "We need to make an antidote for the venom." Arthur pulled a seed out of the box and used earth mana to make a hole and drop it in. "Tess I need you to make that seed grow," Arthur instructed. Tess focused on the seed and Arthur began mixing together other ingredients with a mortar and pestle. "Due to her size, not only do we need to apply the antidote to the wound, but also make her drink some."

"So is that what you're doing? Making the antidote?" Kathyln asked.

"Yes. You can't have this pre made sadly. It only lasts a day after being made. That's why I brought a few of those seeds," Arthur said as a flower bloomed from the seed. "That's great Tess you can stop," Arthur said and started plucking the petals. "These petals when mixed with these other ingredients can neutralize the effects of the venom."

"Would it have really killed her that fast? Is that why you tied off her arm?" Tess asked.

"It probably would have taken a couple hours to kill her, but would have destroyed her mana core in minutes," Arthur explained as he ground up the petals. He then put some of the ground up petals in with some other ingredients to form a thin paste and applied it to the wound, then tightly bandaged it. He then thinned the rest with some water and added some other ingredients. "Lilia isn't unconscious, only paralyzed. But if she doesn't drink this soon the venom that already made it passed her arm will start to damage her core and do permanent damage to her body. Curtis I'm going to need you to hold her mouth open. Lilia, I'm going to use a small amount of lightning magic to stimulate the muscles in your throat to make you swallow. This will probably hurt, but it won't last long. Curtis, it may hurt you too, so brace yourself," Arthur informed them.

"To save Lilia I can endure anything," Curtis replied with determination.

Arthur nodded and Curtis opened Lilia's mouth. Arthur then placed two fingers on her throat and poured the mixture in as he sent short bursts of electricity into her throat muscles. Curtis grit his teeth as he endured the electricity, but never faltered.

"Ok that's it. Get comfortable everyone, we aren't moving until Lilia can move on her own again," Arthur informed them.