Over and over James tumbled, head over heel in perfect darkness, raising a terrible din as his armor struck stone stairs sequentially. Weary from the previous fight, it took him some time, but eventually he flung his arms and legs out and after a brief slide, came to a stop.

His first concern was that he couldn't see anything. This wasn't the normal darkness where his eyes hadn't adjusted to dim light, this was pure blindness.

It took him another long moment, but with more panic, to remember his helmet. He was loathe to pull it off, but he did, and found that the staircase wasn't even dimly lit. More than enough light spilled out from the top, lighting up the regular dark grey slate of the stairs, walls, and ceiling. About a dozen steps down from his position, the slate turned to some kind of black stone and the staircase became somewhat more gloomy, but not so dark as to cause a panic.

He slid the helmet back on, [Blinding] himself, and then took it off again. He wasn't sure what was more impressive: his own enchantment which caused complete blindness in the wearer, or the floor above which was so bright that it overwhelmed his enchantment.

For now, he swapped his helmet out for his Fire Visor Helmet. He certainly wasn't going to explore new territory without a helmet on.

Down he carefully stepped, Light Tower Shield and Earth War Hammer in hand, and the staircase went from well-lit to gloomy to dim to, in the end, nearly pitch black. James stopped to rest and let his eyesight adjust, but even after a meal, he could still barely see the next step in front of himself.

After a moment's thought, he pulled out his training tools from so long ago: a handful of glowstrips, enchanted with the Basic Light Enchantment [Glow]. He pinched them between his fingers holding his War Hammer, and it wasn't the most elegant solution, but the glow was reflected from his armor and spread the light well enough.

Finally, he reached the bottom of the staircase. The second-most fraught-with-peril staircase he had descended thus far. After all, there had been no spider monsters in this one.

He quickly scanned all around at the thought of the spider monsters. None found. Phew.

The tunnel ahead was pitch dark, save for the light of his glowstrips. Shield at the ready, he advanced and found the tunnel opened up into yet another cavern-type floor. Or at least, he thought so, because the light from his glowstrips faded unnaturally a mere two yards away, leaving a dim semi-circle of light in front of himself, and a complete mystery as to what lay beyond.

It's hard to say that James' instincts were screaming at him to be cautious and retreat. After all, he was a Smith and Enchanter. Rather, his instincts were telling him to look for more materials for forging and enchanting.

But he certainly remembered his mother's wisdom.

First, he ensured there was nothing near him by spinning in a full circle, then stepped just to the right of the tunnel entrance and put his back to the wall, and tried to push more mana into his glowsticks.

Sadly, designed as training tools with weak enchantments, there was a limit to how much mana he could push into them. The semi-circle of light barely extended a few more inches, not at all commensurate with the increased effort and mana. He relaxed, and the light shrank once more.

Next, he focused on his senses. The earthy smell of the stale air of the Dungeon floor. The lack of sounds producing a stifling silence, broken up only by the soft clatter of his own armor as he moved. Even the ground was still, though James wasn't sure how much he could tell from vibrations in the ground. He was no Scout, after all.

Still, nothing detected. Now he gave in to his instincts and, still keeping an ear open, took a closer look at the wall he had had his back to.

[Ore Identification]: Black Iron, Nox Essence

The pitch dark stone, which James hadn't seen before this floor, didn't respond to any of his skills, but there was a crystal outcropping wreathed in shadow that the light from his glowstrips couldn't penetrate, which did.

[Appraisal]: Shadow Crystals

James made a snap decision: he was going to mine out some materials while the getting was good.

And then he stopped, and thought to check his armor and hammer. He did not want to repeat the fiasco of the fourth floor, when he had nearly ruined his gear in the heat.

First he inspected his hammer.

[Appraisal]: Earth War Hammer, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 15/15, Enchantment: Heavy Blow (10)

With a sigh of relief, he saw that his hammer was fine.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

But he choked, not even needing a skill to see that his armor and shield had small spots of tarnish forming. He could see they were forming slowly, however, so he decided to still hurry and collect what materials he could.

First, he pulled out his warding stakes, setting up a regular square, maybe on the larger side, including a wall with a large vein of Black Iron and several outcroppings of Shadow Crystals.

The ward failed to form.

But it was close. Maybe he had got the distance wrong on the stakes? He filled in the gaps with extra stakes, since he did have plenty of them, and then the ward formed. It just felt… weaker.

He had better hurry.

Now safe in a ward, the part-time Miner returned his hammer and shield to his magic bag, to spare at least his shield from further tarnishing, and then withdrew a regular pick-axe.

It was the work of less than an hour to clear out the entire vein of Black Iron, which had extended fairly deep into the wall. That, and several large chunks of Shadow Crystals, were enough. So James decided.

And then, no longer focused on his gathering, he heard it.

The soft skittering of claws on stone and hard-packed dirt. The quiet chittering and snuffling of one of the greatest pests of humanity.

Rats.

The son of a Farmer, James would never mistake ratsign, and his father had inculcated in him a fundamental hatred of the rodents that would burrow in the fields, ruin crops, and then find their way into food stores and ruin those as well. Thieves. Disease-carriers. Ugly. Violent when cornered.

James swore at rats in his mind with an unprintable word.

He quickly stored away his mined ore in his magic bag, stowed away the pick-axe – now notably contaminated with nox essence – and withdrew his hammer and shield. Then, glowstrips between his fingers, he approached the edge of his ward, and the darkness beyond…

Squeak squeak squeak

Disgusting!

Rodents Of Unusual Size were crowded around the edge of his ward, and James recoiled. They came up nearly to his waist at the haunch! They might even be taller than him if they got up on their hind legs, which he knew they could do. Their disgusting teeth were downright frightening at their larger size, and he could only hope that his armor was strong enough to resist their bite.

As the light fell on them, they started twisting and contorting faster than he could track, in that disgusting way rats do, and James belatedly realized that his ward was nearly out of magic power.

It hadn't even been a full hour.

Hastily he forced more magic power in, but the rats continued to press against the ward, trying to get to him. Even as he approached. Even as he reached striking distance.

The mole monsters and crab monsters and even the kitten monster had backed up, making sure that James was fully out of the ward before attacking. Not so the rats. James couldn't see in the magical darkness, but there were even more rats behind these, pushing them forward, not letting them retreat.

James grinned fiercely behind his helmet. Easy targets.

He couldn't wait to see what magic stones they dropped.

[Hammer Strike]

[Heavy Blow]

Crunch!

One strike, one crushed rat skull. Now dead, the monster was pushed forward by its brethren, far enough into the ward to grab and pull all the way in. It smelled foul, and bile rose in James' throat, but he forced it back down.

There were more rat monsters to smash.

Crunch!

Crunch!

Crunch!

Crunch!

Crunch!

After slaying half a dozen of the rat monsters, James stopped. He was growing concerned about the way his armor was tarnishing, and the ward was draining magic power faster and faster. He recharged it, and dragged the unusually large carcasses into the tunnel leading to the staircase, and set down a new set of warding stakes blocking off the tunnel.

The other eight warding stakes he wrote off as a loss, as the ward broke and the rat monsters surged into the space in which he had previously been mining. The sight of them climbing and crawling over each other was revolting, but they didn't enter the tunnel.

Feeling the pressure of time as his armor continued to deteriorate, he cut into the rat monsters with a regular iron knife, their fur and skin no more proof against a sharp edge than a regular rat, though they did have some kind of nasty smelling oil in their fur.

James tried very hard not to imagine what kind of oil it was.

Unfortunately, the rat monster meat smelled rancid from the start, and the first rat had a large purplish-green magic crystal embedded in it that made him queasy just looking at it.

The next rat monster had a regular dark magic crystal, as did three more of the remainder, with the the last one also having a purplish-green magic crystal.

None of the meat appeared edible, and James could feel his father's disapproving gaze on his back as he even contemplated thinking about it.

James wasn't that desperate. Not yet.

Materials gathered, he hurried back up the staircase. He reached the top, now well-lit, and took a single step forward and cried out in pain.

The light blinded him, and even closing his eyes and covering them with his hands didn't help. The light just passed right through his flesh, bright as ever. He backstepped and the assault on his eyes stopped, but he was left with vivid purple afterimages covering his vision for several minutes.

Unable to keep himself from swearing under his breath, though he managed not to shout furiously, he swapped his Fire Helmet for his Blind Helmet. Then he took a step forward and could see again.

An overwhelming feeling of exasperation rose in James' breast. What was the deal with magic anyway?

Looking down at his armor, he was shocked and pleased to discover that the tarnished spots were shrinking, his armor returning mostly to normal as it bathed in concentrated lux essence. He flexed his [Enchantment Repair] skill, which chunked his mana down below half, but all his armor responded and was back in good condition, barring the physical damage from his fight with the Holy Tiger.

As he gazed down at the gouged holes in his cuirass, it occurred to James that perhaps he should repair his armor before exploring further.

And even more than that–

It was time to try out the last enchantment he knew, and forge an entirely new set of armor.

Basic Dark Enchantment: [Shadow Concealment].

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