Despite the oddity of the earlier event, Natalie aeam fell bato their usual serious demeanor. It was hard not to, fighting against the vicious beasts of the dungeon. Her brain o focus entirely on each successive fight; there was no room to be embarrassed or incredulous over her circumstances. Footwork, illusions, and trading blows—that was all she could think about.

  Having their gear stripped from them made progressing through the dungeon more of an ordeal than it otherwise would have been, but that said, far from an insurmountable one. As level ones who hadn’t even had powerful gear to speak of, the effect was frustrating aainly a detriment, but their ret advas in teical prowess and teamwork meant monsters fell with retive ease.

  It might everue that they did better than they would have with their gear. They’d beely motivated by Elida’s attack, and to the woman, they stubbornly risen up and refused to have their first dungeon run ruined. With razor focus aermination, they regained, piece by piece, various armor and accessories, slowly w their arsenal back up.

  The items were unfortunately not as well-suited to them, sihey’d spent the past week doing their best to gather ohat would be, but while the bonuses earned from gear were important, the differeween one pied another weren’t that signifit. Their peteh their csses and ons mattered more.

  Natalie, of course, was the most exposed from the event—having armor to defend herself from attag monsters was obviously important for the tank, even if the armor wasn’t as high quality as it could be. Fortunately, the dungeo easy on them, and she found a mail vest in the first hour. Not just that, but Liz’s new powerful o her buffs and heals were strohan ever.

  Hours passed, dozens of mouro smoke ribbons and monster cores, and they fed forward, emboldened by their pig-up speed. It was only a matter of time before they found a real challenge: a stone archway tucked between two t trees. Natalie khe entrao a boss fight when she saw one.

  The team discussed their options. They could mark the entrand backtrack to it ter, when they’d gathered more equipment and thus were better prepared, or they could tackle the elite beast now.

  The inal pn had been the former, but the dungeon had been generous in their first several hours of adventuring; they hadn’t fully restocked their gear, but they’d gotten the basics, and Liz had her new wand to rely on. Not only that, but there was an argument for taking on the boss before they tired themselves out. Hours on hours of delving took obvious tolls on endurance, eveiween fights.

  They came to a sensus—they would fight now. As much as because there were logical reasons to do so, Natalie could tell her teammates were antsy for a difficult fight. Even the more cautious members, like Ana and Jordan, seemed eager to test themselves against a real challenge.

  So, rolling her hammer in her grip, Natalie passed through the stone archway and into the clearing.

  She became doubly certain this would be a boss fight just from the space that opened up. A wide, circur arena sprawled out in front of her. Tall walls of thick, interwoven trees stuffed with vegetation blocked movement in and out. There were four square dirt patches in each of the cardinal dires, and Natalie k would have something to do with the fight, though not how, yet. Boss fights often came with enviroal or arena challehe powerful lead monster was only half the threat.

  Och of dirt furthest from them, across the arena, a figure sat meditating, cross-legged and with either of her palms resting on her knees. She hadn’t opened her eyes on Natalie aeam broag her domain, and they slowed and took a moment to study her.

  The woman had pale green skin, with hair a shade darker that was tucked into a flower . Her clothing was made of the same blue-green leaves that dotted the Wispwood, fashioned in a simple arrahat was somehow elegant. At a guess, she was eight or niall—not human sized. A staff of gnarled wood rested to her side, within reach.

  Their oppo exuded a certain e with nature—like she was as much part of this forest as the grass, dirt, and trees.

  “Dryad?” Sofia murmured.

  Humanoid monsters were more on in lower floors, and also boss fights. Some could even speak, though doing so in anything more than a nominal manner was rare. Certainly they didn’t chat with delvers. Whatever these creature’s existences in the dungeon were, millennia of curious delvers trying to i with them had yielded little. Natalie didn’t expeything different, here.

  Though, she briefly wondered whether her css ged anything. Dryads weren’t unheard of creatures—perhaps even fairly on in the Wispwood—but what were the odds that the dungeon had given them an attractive nature elemental for their first boss fight? Did it mean anything?

  Frankly, Natalie didn’t think so. Nothing about this enter suggested her css would be influeng it. She expected they were in for a boss fight iraditional manner. Indeed, as the dryad cracked open ahen a sed one, frowning as she took in Natalie and her party across the far end of the arena, she felt doubly fident in that assumption.

  Irritation showed pinly on the dryad’s face, and she reached over and picked up her staff. Standing, Natalie firmed she was at least eight feel tall, though disproportionally thin.

  Branches and leaves slithered up from the ground behind them, sealing off the stone archway that had led them into the copse arena.

  “You intrude on my meditation,” the dryad said, cold eyes surveying the party. “How insiderate.” She raised her staff, and the rest of Natalie’s team likewise readied themselves. “No matter. The forest is hungry, and so I will provide it corpses for sustenance.”