“This brings back memories, huh?” Tanner said as he looked over the landscape. 

The inside of this dungeon was a sharp contrast to the barren mountains of the last one. Here, it was mostly smooth, overwhelmingly green with an abundance of wetland plants. The air vibrated with frog song and insects buzzing. Even though they had yet to see any, Grandma felt sure that there were regular old frogs and bugs here. The entire place thrummed with life in a way that soothed Grandma’s spirit.

During their rest cycle, their bonded beasts had slipped through the dungeon entrance and roamed out into the soggy landscape, each seeking their own entertainment. For the most part, Tanner and Grandma had been content to let them do as they pleased, so long as they didn’t eat any people.

Now, the camp was rousing slowly around them. Tanner, Mina, and Grandma sat on the roof of their shelter, enjoying a rare moment of stillness before they set out again.

“Oh, you mean that time we went into a marshy dungeon and got swarmed with angry frogs?” Mina said as a memory lit her eyes. “That was awful,” she laughed.

“We had to run away and close the door!” Tanner grinned.

[It’s too bad we can’t just close the door to this dungeon. I really don’t want to fight frogs.] Grandma lamented.

“Why not? Are you scared of frogs?” Mina tilted her head in question.

[It’s not that. I really love frogs,] Grandma said sadly. [I would prefer not to hurt them. I think they’re cute.]

“C-cute?!” Tanner squawked. “Those huge, slimy things?!”

“Hey, don’t you have a frog beast?” Mina asked, elbowing him in the ribs. “Don’t tell me you dislike it?”

Tanner scrubbed his face with a hand and groaned. “I don’t dislike it. I just don’t think it’s particularly adorable!”

[Well I think it’s adorable.] Grandma laughed. [And the other frogs too.]

[Incoming,] Pluot warned, interrupting their peace.

A V-shaped ripple cut through the shallow water surrounding them, zigzagging toward them. Mina screamed a warning even as she leaped down to meet the threat. Water exploded everywhere as the snake lunged out, jaws wide and fangs glistening in the flat light. Mina reached out with mana, grasping the water and flinging the snake back with a heaving wave, before slicing its head clean off with a whirling blade of water.

The sudden exertion left her panting for breath, but Grandma helped stabilize the girl’s mana reserves, circulating the dungeon’s mana into her body.

“Well, I guess now we have breakfast,” Mina said cheerfully.

The mercenaries balked at eating the monster Mina had slain, and chose to huddle off in their own group, eating cold rations. Mina’s soldiers, on the other hand, crowded around as Grandma fileted the beast and carved off the flesh. Tanner skewered the meat on long, thin sticks they had rummaged up and they all took one to roast over their fire.

Soon, the delectable scent of sizzling meat wafted over to the mercenaries. A few of the blue-marked ones broke free of their group and inched closer, eyeing the food with curiosity. Wordlessly, Grandma offered her skewer to a woman standing a few paces behind her without even turning to look.

The woman startled, then accepted the food awkwardly. Grandma shifted over a bit, making room for the mercenary, who accepted the silent invitation. She blew on the skewer a few times, cooling it before taking a tentative nibble.

“This is surprisingly good,” she murmured. “You seem pretty experienced at this sort of thing.”

“Done it a few times,” Grandma acknowledged.

“I was just a goatherd before this,” the woman shared without prompting. “But when the frogs started flooding our town, my goats got killed, and I had to figure out something else to do.”

“So you kill frogs now?” Grandma asked.

“It’s a living. We had a small pest control office before, but they didn’t do much business since this area has always been pretty safe. When the monsters came, the branch sent out a call for support, and that’s when all those people showed up.” The woman gestured at the other mercenaries, many of whom were glaring at the woman and grumbling over their own meal. “And the pest control office didn’t have enough money to pay all the mercenaries for the supplies they’re bringing back, so the rest of the town had to honor promissory notes by giving them free rooms, free meals, all that nonsense.”

“Went to their heads, huh?” Grandma noted, succinct.

“Sure did. With the monster attacks, we don’t get as many merchants coming through as before, so the pest control office couldn’t sell off the monster parts to get money either. A lot of material that the town had to pay for simply rotted in storage, but those mercs don’t care. They keep bringing in more and demanding money for it.” The woman grimaced. “I used to catch frogs when I was a girl, and my family made a mean spicy frog leg stew, so I would just take the meat home after the others carved off whatever they wanted. We ate well enough, though one does get tired of frog meat after a while.”

“Now you’re eating a snake for a change of pace?” Grandma grinned.

The woman laughed. “It’s simple, but it’s good.” She finished her skewer. “If we can figure out how to manage the situation, we can chase off these outsiders who are bleeding my town dry.” She put out a hand. “Sasha.”

“Call me Aunty,” Grandma said as she shook Sasha’s hand. Grandma updated the woman’s marker to a soft, gentle green.

A few other mercenaries followed Sasha’s example and sat down with Mina’s soldiers, making much of how delicious the snake skewers were. Jiyon chatted them up, drawing their stories out with ease. Grandma watched the boy work his charm, and noted with approval that he didn’t let down his guard, especially not around the black marks.

[That crown prince is clever in his own way,] Grandma told Mina. [He’s acting friendly with the mercenaries but he knows the score. Not everyone here is looking to be our friend.]

[So even though he couldn’t tell that the mercenaries were bullying the townsfolk, he can distinguish between friend and foe?] Mina sounded confused. [What gives?]

[I think he was simply in a totally new environment and had no education about what things to look for. He looked only at the surface level, and didn’t know what details to examine for a deeper understanding. You, Tanner, and even I have already been in situations like this before, so it was obvious to us. But Jiyon picked things up pretty quickly.] Grandma praised the boy grudgingly.

[Don’t hurt yourself saying nice things about him,] Mina laughed.

[Cheeky girl,] Grandma scolded, warm affection softening her words.

Some of the mercenaries finished their meals and went outside. Grandma spread her awareness through her mana and nearly burst out laughing when she saw them trying to skin the snake for its hide. They had no idea how long they’d be in here. That skin would rot before they left the dungeon.

“You’re not thinking of taking the hide and running away, are you?” Grandma said as she silently stalked up behind them.

“Who do you think you are, old fart, talking down to us like that?” One man brandished a long skinny knife at Grandma.

“As you say, I’m just an old fart,” Grandma shrugged, nonchalant and unbothered by his nastiness. “Just remember, no payout for turncoats.” Then she stood and stared at them until the rest of the people were ready to depart.

The enterprising mercenaries were forced by peer pressure to abandon their attempt at skinning the snake and rejoin the rest of the expedition. They sloshed through the soggy terrain, following Mina’s directions, though they complained bitterly about the conditions. Those among Mina’s soldiers who could circulate mana did so, and the mages helped keep their own troops comfortable and dry, repelling the water with a subtle spell that wrapped their legs in a thin hydrophobic layer of magic.

By the third sleep cycle, the mercenaries, unaccustomed to the dungeon interior, were starting to grow unnerved. “What’s with this light?” one complained. “It never changes. I have no idea what day it is anymore.”

“Are we even going anywhere?” another groused. “How do we know that little girl knows what she’s doing?”

“Shh, are you nuts? Don’t let her hear you. Remember what she did to the last guy that questioned her?”

Grandma watched their growing discontent with cold amusement. The soldiers took note of it too, especially Jiyon. As a boy raised in the imperial court, he was familiar with the whispers behind his back, and accustomed to keeping a friendly facade under a variety of circumstances. Grandma adjusted the mercenaries’ markers based on her observations, marking some safer and increasing the threat rating on others.

Their group fought off more monster attacks, everything from snakes and frogs to enormous winged insects that dive bombed them from the air, stabbing at them with stingers or grabbing at them to drop them to their deaths. Mina fended them off, shooting up geysers of water to foul the flyers’ wings and down them so that the mercs and soldiers could finish the kills. Grandma and Tanner continued their ruse of being nothing more than pack-carrying servants.

[This is a nice place,] Pluot said one day as they camped. [It’s wet but full of fun things.]

Grandma agreed with the wolf miasma. The landscape was lush and full of life, large and small. It wasn’t only filled with giant frogs and oversized snakes that wanted to eat them. There were normal sized frogs too, and dragonflies that flitted between rushes. A wide variety of plants floated in the water, arrowleaf and water lily and others that Grandma didn’t know the names of, but which bloomed delicately even in the perpetual half light. Occasionally Grandma caught sight of little splashes and water rings that suggested fish in the marshes. The only complaint she had was that it was perhaps a bit too wet. Her whole body squelched.

Finally, after days of trekking across the watery landscape, Mina led them to another opening marked by two stacks of stones. The space in between them looked like nothing out of the ordinary from one side, but from the other, they could see stairs descending down into the ground. It was a wonder that the next floor was not flooded.

The steps were made of stone, slick and damp and moss covered, but at least they were solid underfoot. The passage was narrow, only large enough for two to walk abreast without slipping and falling down into the darkness, so they proceeded slowly and cautiously in pairs. Mina led the way, leaving globes of light stuck to the walls as high as she could reach every few dozen paces or when the passage turned.

They emerged from the stairwell into a moist cave system. The sound of dripping water echoed across the empty chamber, its steady plip plip inexorably ticking away the time. Grandma sent out her awareness, trying to make sense of the space they were in.

The cave system had large and small chambers, connected by twisting stone passages. Grandma couldn’t reach the entirety of it, not that she had expected to, but it seemed like a maze. Here and there, she detected the little bumps of mana that indicated the presence of magical beasts. Grandma wondered what they would be. Blind cave snakes? Bats? Creepy crawlies? Please not creepy crawlies, Grandma thought with a shudder.

“There’s a small cave farther down this way,” Mina announced. “Let’s head there and rest for a cycle.”

The mercenaries sighed in relief as they finally found drier, firmer ground to walk on. Many of them had developed rashes and sores on their feet and legs due to the constant wetness. The soldiers, protected by their spells, were largely indifferent, but most of them could appreciate the improvement based on past experience.

The small cave Mina led them to had a handful of openings leading off from it. Mina closed all of them with stone that she heaved from the floor, leaving only a small gap in each passage for airflow. The soldiers set up camp, while the mercenaries shucked off their boots and massaged their feet with groans.

[Can you and Tanner scout with your beasts? I can’t get a good sense of where we should be going, and these tunnels are all twisty.] Mina glanced at Tanner and Grandma.