Dungeon POV

  Going over the changes that have occurred while I was lost in my work, I am shocked to find Clyde's group on the fifth floor. For the first time I missed one of my bosses first encounters with delvers. For some reason this makes me unexpectedly sad. Sure, I have the memory of the fight from the part of my consciousness left here to monitor the fourth floor, but it's not the same.

  Looking closer I can see that Clyde's party is a lot stronger than they use to be. Darrel is currently blasting Ice spears which seem denser than before while simultaneously maintaining the water wall spell. They're currently fighting the wood golems in one of the side rooms just past the first official room. I wouldn't have expected Darrel's ice spears to become dense enough to pierce wood, especially considering my wood golems have bodies are pretty dense themselves. I did however fully expect most mages to have some kind of powerful area of effect type spell by the time they reached this point.

  Darrel's ice spears aren't exactly wide ranging, but they make up for it by being precise and hard to dodge due to the speed at which they are launched. Clyde and Cole on the other hand seem to have skills that increase their striking power and efficiency. Sure, some of it is them getting better at fighting in general but there are also actual skills involved. Lily is pouring more mana into her defense buff than ever before so obviously she has improved as well. She hasn't improved as much as the others, but I suspect that has more to do with the sheer number of her spells and other skills than any shortcomings on her part. The most shocking improvement though is Chandra, her daggers now cut through the wood golems rather easily.

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  I watch them for a while wanting to see just how far they've come since I got distracted building that last room. It soon becomes clear that they are almost at their limit. I don't think they'll clear this room, not that they completely cleared the first room either. Knowing this I shift my perspective up above the entry gate to get a good view of Mirage. Clyde apparently hates the name, but it was the most popular of the choices among his other party members.

  The town itself is still growing slowly but steadily. There aren't any major changes that I can see though. I don't stick around outside my dungeon to long though. After all Clyde's party is already on the fifth which means I need to hurry up with the sixth floor. The good news is that them being on the fifth floor is netting me a lot of mana. Now that I'm actually paying attention it, the mana I get from them killing a single wood golem is worth almost as much as all the rats on the first floor combined. Ah well, the dungeon isn't going to build itself. That said it was nice to poke my head up and take a metaphorical breath.

  Clyde POV

  Those damned wood golems are relentless. Fortunately, they aren't too hard to deal with there's just so many of them. My mana reserves are just about empty and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one feeling the strain. I really don't want to give up now after nearly clearing another room, but it's better to play it safe. We're going to need a lot more mana potions to conquer the fifth floor.

  "Alright let start making our way back to the entrance." I said reluctantly and judging by the relieved looks on their faces I'm confident I made the right call. We did have to fight a few more wood golems on the way out of the dungeon which I wasn't counting on but apparently the first room wasn't cleared completely. Once back out on the street we immediately began discussing the delve.

  "What was that?" Chandra asked. I started to make some joke about firewood the delivers itself but changed my mind.

  Darrel soon piped up "It was like the entire forest was attacking us. I doubt there is an infinite number of wood golems, but it sure felt like it."

  Sensing that we could use a mood booster I invite the party to a meal to celebrate making it to the fifth floor. This had the intended reaction of raising spirits. To be fair the food quality has improved since we started getting regular shipments of magically preserved food.