<div class="floatright"><div align="center">Lisa</div>(http://i.imgur.com/S1SsSzu.jpg)</div><br/>Lisa shrugged at Zerxel's question.  She seemed as if unconcerned,<strong> "It's only the second level of the dungeon, things haven't been too tough for me yet.  I've managed to negotiate my way out of a fight or two, and hidden from another few." </strong>It struck Zerxel at that moment how flippant the girl was, and remembered that she was the youngest contestant this year, having only celebrated her seventeenth naming day a few months ago at the temple.  Zerxel had spent enough time around humans to realize how arrogant they could be, and in a totally different way then drow were.  Drow were arrogant, stubborn, and overconfident at times, but the drow had nothing on young humans who seemed to think they were completely invincible and would outlive elves and dwarves alike.  Still, something else seemed off about Lisa.  How had she happened to come upon them just then?  Zerxel had only run into one other contestant this level, barring Shugar and Bo of course.  Zerxel's calculating mind kicked into gear as she did a little math.<br/><br/>A slight rumble in her stomach at that moment reminded her that they'd also come across the soulfruit of three others.  How many contestants were still in the dungeon at this moment?  Of the original fifty to enter, tradition held that the weakest, slowest, or unluckiest two wouldn't even make it from the arena into the first level, cutting the number down to forty eight.  On the first level, Zerxel had seen two contestants being raped by monsters, the blonde elf that had been taken by the thrall beast at the beginning of the level.  Then later she'd watched Esther get taken by a minotaur near the end of the level.  It was possible that both of those contestants had never made it off the first level, though not a given.  Also it was likely that there were more contestants that fell, as it was highly unlikely she had witnessed the only two girls to be defeated.  Zerxel was a student of the dungeon and knew that on average five contestants usually never made it through the first level, sometimes less, sometimes far more.  But a safe assumption was that the second level had started with around forty of the contestants.  Now this city sized level was very large, much larger than an average level she had thought.  So it wouldn't be impossible that she would avoid bumping into any other contestants.  Bo and she had been looking for each other, and Shugar had been a random chance.  But then so had Ruta, and now Lisa?<br/><br/>What were the odds that she'd just happen to run into around 10% of the other contestants on a dungeon level this size?  Probably fifty percent at best she figured.  No, Bo wore the golden key around her neck.  Any contestant could track two things with their compass, the location of the exit and the location of the golden key.  Apparently on this level the exit command only pointed to whichever of the four gates was the closest, but if a contestant whispered 'key' to their compass, it would always point towards the key's location... to Bo's location.<br/><br/>Zerxel frowned, and the young human woman caught it and said,<strong>"Hey, look, I don't know what the problem is.  I just thought I'd touch base with you.  Maybe see how you were doing so far.  Maybe trade a little information.  Maybe you have seen something you think I should avoid?  I notice there's three of you, that's dangerous, maybe one of you would like to come with me?  Two groups of two is probably safer than a group of three and a solo?"</strong>She shrugged and smiled disarmingly, but Zerxel could tell that both Bo and Shugar seemed hesitant, wary even.