Dimitri, Jack, and the Beehive and Bloody Claws party managed to get to the dungeon in five hours of running.
As soon as they neared it, Dimitri knew that something was off.
He brushed some sweat off his brow and then went inside the cave.
It had mushrooms growing along its walls, but none were glowing ones. There were footsteps in the mud. Water was falling from the ceiling.
"If this is a Bogart nest," Dimitri said, as he looked at Jack and the two parties charged with escorting him. "Then the Stone Rhinos must have insulted them somehow."
"Which means that they will be haunted until the end of time," Jack clarified for the confused adventurers.
"There is no telling if the parties who were already here had insulted the Bogarts as well," Dimitri continued. "I know just the thing to get one out. I need some milk and honey."
He began to rummage in the bag. There were plenty of crates with fruit and vegetables, but no milk bottles.
"Strange, I can swear I had at least one bottle of milk in here," Dimitri said, beginning to back out of the cave. "Let us just go outside."
As soon as he said that the cave's entrance turned into a wall behind them.
Jack grit his teeth.
"Definitely Bogarts," he said, as he took out a flashlight and turned it on.
"Wow! What sort of candle is this one?" Derek from the Beehive party asked.
Jack smiled.
"We are not from this world, you know? I had this on me when we travelled to your world."
Derek nodded. Only to get an idea.
"If we can replicate this candle, then dungeon delving will be easier! What sort of other things did you bring?"
Jack blinked. Did this boy want him to recreate a flashlight?
"I have the flashlight, but I don't know how to put one together," not to mention that the world didn't have the necessary tools for something like that.
"You can bring it to the wizard tower at the edge of Oak's Rest! They are pretty handy!"
Jack smiled.
Oh, to have a phone again! To be able to use an automatic razor!
"Will do," he said, as he shone a light on the mosaic.
There were demons depicted on it. One of the sapphire eyes on a particularly ugly demon was missing.
"Ah, so that's how they insulted the dungeon. They tried to loot it," Jack said, pointing at the empty eye socket.
Dimitri nodded next to him, taking out a mana stone.
"Would you like this for your eye instead? We will find your real eye as well. Just let us get to the Stone Rhinos."
The mosaic began to rearrange. Dimitri took hold of Jack's hand, and they rushed inside.
The two parties followed soon after.
What they found on the other side of the mosaic was a scorching heat.
Dimitri was soon taking off his tunic and tying the sleeves around his waist.
"So that's why they called it the Dungeon of Flames," Mike from the Bloody Claws said. "I take it that they must have gotten at least to the second level."
"There is no guarantee that the Stone Rhinos were the ones who stole the eye. The dungeon was awoken for a whole two weeks now," Annie from the Bloody Claws noted. She was their healer, always looking out for a danger.
Giving them passive healing buffs. Together with Dimitri, who was also a healer, but still in training.
The vampire copied how Annie's mana flowed through them all, trying to imagine what it would feel like to get a bit of coolness back on them.
The adventures glowed under the two buffs. The heat became bearable.
"We march inside," Mike said, as he took the point. As it befitted him as the tank. "Come on!"
The small squad began to move deeper into the dungeon. The shadows were playing on the walls. The heat was becoming too much even for the buffs.
Jack sniffed the air.
He could smell someone who was alive, but barely.
"This way! I think one of them is here!" Jack took off down a left corridor, the squad behind him.
There, on a table strapped with ropes, was a man in healer's robes. He was limp on the table, his eyes closed.
"Nate!" Annie yelled, as she broke formation to get to the healer. "Hang in there!"
Dimitri was soon by her side. He mimicked her again, trying to cool Nate down.
Only to feel so, as if he were boiling alive. His mana was almost depleted.
And yet, he pushed through.
"Ok, we need more mana!" Annie said. Her party members placed a hand over her back, letting their mana flow through her.
Jack did the same with Dimitri.
The vampire blinked when he felt a freezing cold. He yelped.
"No!" Annie said, as she began to shake her head. "Dimitri, leave this to me! Jack, I know you want to help, but you are a ghoul! There is no telling what your undead mana will do to Nate!"
With a bowed head, Jack let go of Dimitri.
The vampire was trying to catch his breath. He stumbled towards one of the walls and leaned on it.
"You nearly turned me into an icicle!" Dimitri protested.
Jack nodded.
"Sorry. I just did what the others did," he murmured, as he took out his flashlight again. He began to look at the runes on the cave's ceiling.
"Wait a sec! This is Chinese!"
Dimitri looked at the carvings as well.
"Hot… tea? The dungeon wants to boil us alive!" The vampire exclaimed as he began to look for an exit.
But there was none.
"Crap," Annie said, as she was busying herself with freeing Nate from his bindings.
"If it is hot tea," Mike said, his face set in a grim mask. "Then there will be boiling water in here soon."
The adventurers grew silent.
Then, Dimitri got an idea.
"What if we bribe the dungeon?" He asked, already taking out mana stones. "To get all the Stone Rhinos out of here?"
"I don't know about bribing," Annie said. She had been in more than one dungeon. She knew that those were greedy. "But we can overwork it with the crystals!"
Dimitri didn't need to know anything else. He began to pile up mana crystals near the wall.
The dungeon, not sensing their plan, began to absorb them.
The heat gave way to a slight breeze.