Two days later, after the fight, a small expedition was formed. The plan was to reach the next floor. However, if they trigger the challenge, they will need people to finish it. The seed of the glowing vine was a tempting reward. So four teams gathered, twenty-two people in total. They were accompanied by twenty porters carrying essential supplies. Nurmela was chosen as the expedition's leader.

  “I don't see a dying dwarf. There are just golems there. Anyone, can you see him?” She asked when they reached the gate.

  “No.” The sun elf officer shakes his head. “Maybe it’s one of those challenges that need to be triggered in some specific or complicated way?”

  “It definitely looks that way.” The leader of another adventurer team agreed.

  “The plan was to reach the next floor. The seed was just an extra. Let’s clear the way and see what’s down there.” Nurmela decided.

  The fight was fast and easy. There were just ten golems there. Most of them were destroyed by the volley of spells. A few that weren’t affected were put down easily by warriors. After a quick check to see if there was something valuable there, they entered the tunnel leading to the stairs to the next floor. When they reached the bottom, they entered something looking like the main hall of the castle. The front door leads to the courtyard surrounded by tall stone walls and a barricaded tower gate.

  “Let’s go to the tower. From there, we should see what Dungeon Mistress prepared for us. Scouts and support try carefully to check all rooms in the keep.” Nurmela ordered, and the adventurers split to fulfil their tasks. When the team leaders climbed to the top of the tower above the gates, they saw a dense forest stretching in every direction and surrounded by tall cliffs. There was a stone road through the woods, but overhanging branches blocked the view.

  “And where are the golems?” Nonisa asked, and as if in answer, they heard drumming. It was more like hitting an empty log with a piece of wood, but the meaning was obvious.

  “That’s what you get when you ask a stupid question inside a dungeon,” Nurmela chastised her. “Orcs are coming! All adventurers on the wall!” She shouted.

  A column of golems appeared on the road. On the front marched twenty of them carrying a battering ram. They were protected by others who had shields, and at the edge of the forest, others were waiting, preparing to storm the gate.

  “Mages and archers, show them what you can.” Nurmela didn’t hesitate even one moment. “Warriors, get ready. When most of them are destroyed, you will clear the rest.”

  “When I'm finished, there will be nothing left.” Nonisa laughed maniacally.

  The siege was indeed short, but because there were over one hundred golems, all the mages used almost all of their mana.

  “I like this floor.” Nonisa smiled despite sitting tired on the floor.

  “I concur. It’s a great place to train greater magic on real targets. Albeit I seek an opportunity to train it during combat.” A sun elf mage answered her.

  “Nice for you, mages, but we need to decide what's next. We can’t sit and do nothing.” Nurmela said.

  “What’s there to think about. We need to send one or two teams to see what is happening inside the woods.” The team leader of another adventurer group shrugs.”

  “Two could be risky. This keep is only partially safe. There needs to be enough people to defend it. I'm not sure if losing one team won't be dangerous." The sun elf officer observed.

  “I propose we wait until tomorrow. We have almost a whole day before sunset. If the golems attack one or two times during the day, then I think with fifteen of us, we could defend the keep. If attacks are much more frequent, then we retreat and return with more people.” Nurmela proposed, and all adventurers agreed to that solution.

  During the first day, they concentrated on searching every nook and cranny of the keep. It turned out that it was prepared for a crew of more than one hundred people. There was a simple forge to repair damaged equipment. A small apothecary workshop with a stock of herbs and healing potions. In the cellar were supplies. However, most of it was dry food. If someone wants something fresh, they will need to go to the woods for hunting. And there were barracks where they could rest.

  The whole day passed peacefully, so they decided to take a risk and send one team to check what was hiding in the forest. They decided to draw straws to determine who would go.

  “Give us three days. After that, it will mean we were forced to return.” The sun elf commander said before he and his team left.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  “We should manage the three days.” Nurmela nodded. “If there is no one on the wall, it will mean that we have been forced to retreat. Then, we will meet outside the dungeon.”

  “It’s a reasonable plan.” The commander nodded and gave a sign to move.

  On the third day, the sun elves cautiously approached the edge of the forest. They arrive exactly in the middle of the siege. They waited until the mages slowed down, throwing their spells to attack golems from behind. The commander uses the horn to signal an attack and inform the defenders that help has arrived. When they engaged the golems, gates opened immediately, and warriors poured from within. The fight took half an hour, because although the mages managed to destroy most of the golems, there were still many left.

  “Nice timing.” Nurmela thanked the sun elves after they secured the gates.

  “There were many more golems compared to the first time.” The sun elf officer observed.

  “Yes. Yesterday, there were two attacks. Today I was seriously thinking about backing out, but then you showed up. Anyway. What do you find?”

  “The road and forest are intensively patrolled. Small groups, but you need to destroy them quickly and quietly, because you could attract the nearest patrol. In the middle of the floor is a river. The bridge is heavily guarded. We found one shallow crossing, but you need to travel light to use it. And the exit is in the orcs' camp. Nothing special, just a wooden palisade, but there could be a few hundred golems there.”

  “Shit. We need an army.” Nurmela swore.

  “Yes.” The sun elf commander agrees.

  After a few days of resting and recuperating, sixteen warriors who emerged victorious from the challenge gather to decide what to do with the reward. For now, it was deposited in the temple of The Lady, but adventurers need money first and fame later.

  “I think all are present.” The leader of the first team said, after all had gathered in the tavern outside the dungeon. “I think we should go for the easiest way. Let’s sell it. The Grand Merchant should know someone to buy it, or he could organize an auction for nobles. With a little luck, we could get dozens of gold to split between us.”

  “Right.” One adventurer sighted. ”I guess we will need to borrow money then. It will take time before we see the money.” The On Taram was far away from anywhere important. It will take a month, maybe even two, to reach a big enough city, where that kind of treasure could be sold. It could take half a year before they see the money.

  “Lady officer. What about the sun elves nobles? Maybe even your noble lady. Surely they are interested in it. Yes?”

  Someone asked the sun elf commander, who led a team that fought alongside them.

  “It’s true we were interested in this seed.” She answered. “But we won’t buy it. We need to win it ourselves.”

  All adventurers lowered their heads, looking into their mugs. Some were still thinking about how to avoid borrowing money, but none of them could find a solution.

  “I will buy it. I can’t pay more than one gold for one person, but I will buy it.” Suddenly, one of the dwarves stood up and loudly said.

  “I hope you are drunk, because if you are trying to scam us…” The leader of the first team stood, and all gathered were not happy with what they heard.

  “I don’t want to sell it further. My brother is a priest of The Lady in Kerulur. I want to send him this seed and have him try to grow it. If we sell it to some noble, it will end in a vault where it will rot away.” He explained.

  “I think our dwarven friend here accidentally raised an important topic.” The sun elf commander spoke. “We actually don’t know if this seed will germinate. We could be accused of fraud if we sell it to someone who decided to plant it and see what happened.”

  Everyone froze. Indeed, they forgot about that. Selling a fancy sword or some precious stones was easy and safe. Merchants have the skills and knowledge to assess the value of an item. With potions and consumables, things become risky. Not always was there a way to properly predict the outcome of using them. The same goes for planting the seed.

  “Can I add something?” A young priestess, one of their healers, raised a hand.

  “Sure thing, Priestess.” The leader of the first team said.

  “I also want to mention that not all dungeon challenges end with the death of the last monster or successful return. Some of them test adventurers will and soul even after that. I think it could be one of them.” She said.

  Now, adventurers were genuinely scared. All of them know stories of how rare treasures from the dungeon become the reason for the downfall of people who found them. Greed destroyed many good teams.

  “Right. Mister dwarf, give me one silver and send it to your brother. But inform him that I will visit him someday in the future. I hope he has a good excuse if I don't see the vines growing by then.” One adventurer stands and approaches the dwarven warrior. The rest of the warriors soon followed. They decided it was the best way to deal with the problem. They need to take a loan anyway, and money from the auction wasn’t guaranteed.

  Furthermore, there was a problem with the test to see if they were greedy. And all of them know they were, but at the same time, they weren’t stupid. This reward was a hot potato, and it would be better if someone else dealt with it.

  And one year later, it turns out that the young healer was right. Kings and nobles start sending teams of adventurers and even the elite knights to aquareie the seed. Most of them were unprepared for the challenges of the dungeon. Smart one quits, or hire adventurers. The greedy, stubborn, or simply stupid were forced to retreat. A few of them die. Thankfully, Dungeon Mistress designed this challenge to appear only once a month, and there was only one try.

  “Adventurer’s guild will need to have a special list for those who would attempt the challenge to win the seed. I wonder, why do you, Dungeon Mistress, make it so restrictive?” Juthar, Grand Priest of the Sun, asked.

  “It’s simple. The world is full of beautiful flowers and plants. People like things new and shiny, so they might forget about them. I hope that the difficulties of getting one force you all to be creative and use what you have to achieve a similar effect.”

  “You are absolutely right, Dungeon Mistress.” Pinera wholly agreed with her.