What just happened?

I Sit down with my back on the mountain wall next to the cave entrance. I am still aching all over and not all my pain is gone yet. So pretending to be a hurt and lowly adventurer is not that hard right now. The last man is standing in just next to the cave entrance on guard against me and the forest. Looking at him I decide to take a risk to get some information out of him.

"Well, you three looks to be much better than me. Been doing this a lot?"

The short man looks at me for a few seconds seeming to listen to his allies inside the cave. But it seems that my makeshift door does a better job than expected.

"We are famous newbie. This is not work for a shitstain of a newbie like you.what are you stone ranked or are you even registered in the guild? "

He looks at me with a judging eye and seems to not like what he sees. All in my favor, I have no problems at all with him or anyone else looking down on me. That should make survival so much easier. Seems like the adventures guild have ranks and from what he says I can guess stone rank is the lowest their is. Meaning that they are of a higher rank.

"Eh... Well I just thought I could try my hand at a dungeon. So far it went well, right?"

I scratch my beard and look at him not even needing to try looking weak. Seems like he is willing to talk. that is good.

"So... how awesome does one need to be to get to a higher rank like you?"

Stroking his ego seems to work well.

"We are copper ranked you know." he fish out a little copper plaque he has around his neck and show it to me. " They do´t give this to everyone you know. Makes us third rank, you at best can hope for getting a bronze plaque if you are lucky and kill some monsters or something."

Interesting, maybe he can tell me what more ranks their is. Good to know when they come in the future.

"Much be so hard to get that high... have you ever..."

I do not have time to finish my question before we hear commotion from the cave. Its hard to say exactly what is is but we both turn to the entrance. The sound keeps on for about a minute, the man still staying here outside guarding me. That is good for me, if the two inside happens to die he can still come back not making it as bad as if all of them disappears in my dungeon. Then I feel energy coming to me, not much but enough to make me feel a lot better. Seems like one of them almost died in there. I wonder if they will keep trying when one of them gets that close to deaths door. But a short while later both of them come limping out of the cave.

The tall one looks like he gone through a lot with his armor ripped and blood all over his hands and arms. The one in chain mail looks at me before speaking.

"Undead and wolves, did any of you see a fucking wolf run past here?"

We look at each other and both shakes our heads.

"Fuck. I want to kill that fuck. It must hidden in there somewhere. Well we are done here. Time to go. the newbie can stay for all I care. "

Ah. I am lucky, I was wondering what to do if they wanted to bring me with them. Wait a second, did I hear that right.

"Did you say undead? There is undead in there?" I look at the cave wondering what in the world happened, corpses only disappears.

"Are you fucking hard of hearing newbie? Yes undead. But who cares, only a normal zombie, they are dumber than wood and easy to deal with. the wolf is the danger in there. It´s smart."

The tall one looks at me with pity when he says

"You are free to keep looking in there. we did not get to the chest, but be careful. I would not recommend anyone to go in there alone if they aren´t at least at silver rank. " He turns to his limping friend "Jack, lets go."

The three walks back down into the forest and I look after them. seeing a wolf to my right I shake my head, hoping they will let them go. This is the best possible outcome I could have gotten. Medium danger, hopefully no innocent new adventurers will come or extreme powerhouses and no army. I make a sigh and stand up to start to make a camp fire here on the outside in case they stay for a while to keep check on me. I need to start thinking about hiding my living space in there and maybe make a second more hidden exit to use for me and Harn. I also need to check what that about a zombie was, was it Harn pretending to be one or maybe something else?

Waiting outside and frying some food in the pan Harn and Bork had, I take my time thinking about different plans. The tactic of bring them on the edge of death seems to work. Seems at least copper ranked adventurers have some ways to heal them self when in trouble. And if some of them dies it should not be to much of a problem as long as not to many die and someone decide that the dungeon is to dangerous.

I really wish I could leave here, I could join the adventures guild my self. Getting more information and being here pretending to be an adventurer would be so much easier. Harn can not do it for me with that brand in his face. Or maybe I could get in touch with another dungeon lord, learn the ropes from someone.

The wolf comes out from the cave and lays down next to me. I see some blood in its fur, but it seems to be fine. I pet it some.

"Well you seem to be a fast and effective worker. Heh. Thanks for helping me this time too. You being out here must meen that they are gone. I can trust your sense of smell right."

It looks up at me and wags its tail, that´s a first. With that I stand up, and walk into the cave. leave the fire as it is, Harn can use it to cook him self some food and maybe I can boil some water in it to clean my clothes later.

Walking into the cave I take my time to with my hands fix with the walkway with a little energy, check on the chest and then walk over to see what this about a zombie is about. I Light a torch from the bandit camp, maybe I should start putting torches up here and there? Nah, I do not have the resources to do that without running out of them fast. Mostly we just use them for moving back and fourth, in the deeper part of the cave we leave a campfire burning all the time. cutting down and drying firewood there is not a problem.

Then I see it, two men standing in front of me. One of them is Harn and the other is Bork. And Bork does not look to be alive. Harn looks at him and then at me.

"My Lord, He died and started to walk out here. I armed him."

Huh, Bork somehow turned into a zombie?