Rupegia 29 Paying

"Please don't."

The book crumbles on his careless touch and he yelps, all heads turn towards him in surprise.

"Lyle... It's okay, the book will regenerate," Lina says in a soft voice.

"Oh, yes, right," he laughs at himself.

The book turns to dust that quickly disappears into nothing. A few seconds later a black goo appears on the shelf, it slowly reforms into the shape of a book. Eventually it regains color and texture, finis.h.i.+ng its regeneration.

Ciel motions for us to a.s.semble.

"The rotten gra.s.s, I'm almost sure it's undead corruption," she says.

"You are not sure?" Alissa asks.

"No, I only crossed some small corruption a long time ago, we were pa.s.sing through the remains of a nest of a White Arachne. These arachnes are quite weak so I never really had the opportunity to fight one, the adventurers would always kill them before the temple found one."

Lina's Trivia: Monsters mutate quite often, ironically the G.o.d of Destruction uses evolution, i.e. gradual change, as a way to bolster his forces. One of the rare mutations is the monsters acquiring the knowledge to become "undead". They find a way to dissociate their soul and body from the influence of all G.o.ds, they become something "unnatural" to our reality, detached from the cycle of mana. They can absorb any matter to survive, live forever, disrupt life and matter just by existing, and need to be completely annihilated to truly die.

"That is actually worrying, if the family of dragonoids that guarded the gatehouse became undead then they would be very difficult to deal with. No, they would be impossible to deal with," I say.

"Indeed," Ciel says.

"Yeah, I agree, you shouldn't underestimate those dragonoids," Hana says.

"I will scout ahead, we need to know what exactly is out there," Alissa says.

I take a moment to think about her words.

"I will go with you," I say.

We stare at each other. She doesn't want to risk me and I don't want to risk her.

"We are stronger together," I say with more resolution in my tone.

Her stare slowly turns into a smile.

"Together then," she grabs my hand and kisses it, then I kiss her hand back.
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"Tell the others what we just discussed," I say to Ciel.

"Make sure to come back before dinner, whatever is out there you can properly scout tomorrow," Ciel says, her tone leaves no room for questioning.

"Yes, mom," I mutter and walk away.

"I heard that!"

I walk away faster.

­

I left a single earth elemental to guard the entrance to the castle, for us I summoned a Shad and Holly to help us with vision. I will ride Alissa during the trip.

"This is nostalgic, just the two of us," I whisper.

"Not really a pleasant memory, you were too close to danger before Hana," she whispers back.

I can fell her pout even though her fox mouth doesn't move. I just smile and hug her fluffiness harder, I love this fox form of her so much.

Before meeting her I was scared out of my mind, I was lost and incredibly lonely. I threw myself at her and she opened her heart to me. She's my anchor and I'm her light, we will live together and die together, that I am sure.

"Hey..." A very peculiar thought occurred to me, "Can you feel pleasure in your fox form?"

Alissa stops, her fox face looks at me, slowly the corner of her lips rise into a frightening smile full of pointy fangs.

"Yes," she answers calmly.

"Ok... Let's keep moving."

I will continue that train of thought another time.

­

The smell of rot gets stronger, the cave opens up and we enter a dead orchard. I summon another Holly and tell it to fly about, if she finds another living being she must return to us immediately.

With the second Holly's vision I can see how big the cave has become, the orchard turns into a hedge maze that we contour. When the second Holly starts to fly over the maze a stone statue of a dragonoid archer releases its arrow towards Holly.

She immediately doubles back towards us. The arrow misses narrowly and with the corner of Holly's vision I can see the statue drawing another arrow.

"Stop! Go back to the entrance!" I tell Alissa.

"Ok, what's going on?"

"Holly got attacked by a statue."

Her fox eyes spell confusion.

Holly leaves the maze just as another arrow flies past her, her small size is a real advantage against projectiles. I see the statue returns to its normal position, with a drawn bow pointing upwards.

"A trap to prevent other dragonoids from flying above. This maze has anti-air statues, they take life and shoot arrows at flying targets," I say.

"Why would they do something like that? You don't put defenses like these unless you are guarding something valuable."

"Indeed, but dragonoids have a rather ruthless society, perhaps it's a prank, perhaps it's a test. If it's not related to their culture it could be something a dungeon rarely creates."

"A treasure chest!" Alissa seems ecstatic.

"Wanna bet Ciel is gonna side with Lyle when we tell them this?"

She snorts.

"No, that would be a dumb bet."

"Heh. Anyway, let's go around this maze and continue scouting."

I tell second Holly to circle around the maze on the opposite direction of us. The maze is quite wide so we reach the border of the cave while running around it. Aside from the inside of the maze we scouted every single inch of this cave, then we meet up on the other end of the maze.

We continue forward and pa.s.s a creepy statue garden, it has all sorts of statues of dragonoids. There are butchers, robed cultists, soldiers, actors, bone armored robed cultists, alchemists, mages, robed cultists stabbing themselves, merchants, n.o.bles, executioners cutting heads off, cultists sacrificing other dragonoids, farmers, scholars, cultists eating other dragonoids, cultists raping other dragonoids, tall piles of dragonoid skulls, and a very large and mean looking dragonoid.

We do not talk about the statues, the increasing creepiness makes us not want think any more than necessary about this place. The only thing we paid mind is the corruption, the smell of rot was gone but a very faint smell of acetone fills the air.

After the statues we reach a water park. It literally has water slides, they look incredibly fun except for the black and bubbling slimy water. The air is filled with suspended particles that sparkle when our light touches them.

Alissa takes great care to avoid the deadly water. The smell of rot returns faintly and the smell of acetone increases. It also starts to slightly burn our lungs, it's damaging us. After 10 minutes smelling this "acetone" I see it reduced my HP by 1 point.

After the ridiculously large water park comes a gra.s.sland followed by a grove. At the border of the grove I tell Alissa to stop.

"What is it now?" She asks.

"Holly found something, seems to be a dragonoid. Her vision is being disrupted greatly, I think it could be the undead."

"Her vision is supposedly very sensitive, makes sense for it to be disrupted by the corruption of the undead."

"Yes."

"Where is the undead and where is it going?"

"It's deeper into the grove a long way to our left, it's moving away from us. I couldn't see anything else since Holly turned back as soon as she sensed it. I believe that one had a green glow, wind type."

As Holly moves towards us her vision quickly improves. It was like an a.n.a.log TV having interference, the image distorted and got grainy. Holly even suffered some damage just by getting close to it. We are much tougher than her so we wouldn't take instantaneous corruption damage just by meeting an undead, but it would be detrimental to our health if we fought it.

"Let's return," Alissa says.

"Yes, Ciel would kill us if we went deeper."

"With the way Lina is changing she would join Ciel."

This time I'm the one who snorts.

­

"Undead, huh..." Lyle is in deep thought.

"It's dangerous to stay here," I say.

"It would be very tough to kill a single undead dragonoid," Hana says.

"Even worse is that out there is probably a family of undead dragonoids that were supposed to be protecting the entrance to this place," Alissa says.

Lyle purses his lips.

"We are not leaving," Ankara says with decisiveness.

"Why?" I ask.

"This place is too valuable, we have to stay here and compile the books in this small library," he says.

"Let a Glutton eat your words, you can come back here later," Hana says.

Lina's Trivia: Gluton is a slime-type monster that eats anything related to plants or animals (including humanoids). Hana's expression means "screw that".

Ankara narrows his eyes in annoyance.

"We are staying here, if we come back later this place will be filled with other scholars and soldiers to subjugate those undead dragonoids," he says.

"Oh, so that is what you are worried about, that someone would steal all your glory," I say.

His composed face breaks and he glares at me with anger.

"You should know your place, boy, show some respect," Tankar says through gritted teeth.

"What are you on about?"

"It is Mr. Gartania and Sir Tankar, not 'you'," he spews.

I can barely discern his expression, he never takes off that helmet.

"I, do, not, care, I'm not your f.u.c.king squire," I look at him with disdain.

Tankar clenches his mailed fist in anger.

"That's enough! Both of you!" Lyle yells and hits his fist on the table.

Ah s.h.i.+t, I gotta calm down. I'm not used to dealing with this amount of self-importance.

"The undead are very far away, we can keep an eye on them, can't we?" Lyle says and looks at me.

"The corruption is too strong and damages us. I will not let any of my women stand guard in the middle of that nasty air, I will use summons and let them at the border of the corrupted air. This should give us 30 minutes of early warning if the dragonoids come to us."

"Then that's enough, there's no need to run away now."

I'm conflicted, the maze, or safety, the maze, or safety. I look at Ciel, her eyes show a hint of excitement ever since we mentioned the maze. Ah, f.u.c.k it, we will stay.

"Keep in mind the price of your glory," Hana says to Ankara, she shares my disdain.

I let a sigh escape.

"I will agree to stay but only if I get whatever is inside that maze, no questions asked," I say.

"I wish to explore that maze," Lyle says earnestly, eager to change the topic.

"Now that's pus.h.i.+ng it," Hana says.

Lyle drops his shoulders.

"I will stay with the books, that maze smells like a treasure chest," Ankara says.

"Me too," Delwyn says.

"I would like to go to the maze," Gwinevere says.

"We could split, no problem," Lyle says innocently.

"Bad idea," Ciel says.

Alissa nods in agreement. Lyle looks like a dejected puppy.

"Look, we are not taking any of you, it's too dangerous," I say.

Lyle seems hurt but without him we can use [Gate] to return instantly if something goes bad.

"I'm sorry but I'm not taking any chances, we will explore that place but only if we are alone. That way we can easily run away if danger comes either to us or to you."

Tankar scoffs.

"I'm more than enough to keep the undead away if you decide to prance about that maze," he says.

Death-flag.

"Suit yourself," I wave my hand at him, "We will leave two elementals here anyway to help."

"Then you are going tomorrow?" Lyle asks.

"Yes, tomorrow morning."

­

Ankara spoiled the mood again so we end up eating dinner separately. After that I immediately bring Alissa to bed and seek her tongue, her tail ruffles the sheets as it wags below her.

I will never get tired of this, of her taste, of her feeling. I easily get hard and I slide my hand past her bush, she immediately opens her legs and receives my finger with a moan. I play with her until I feel her little bean grow on my hand, I pull her pants halfway and penetrate her.

She breaks the kiss as she cannot contain her moans anymore. I shove the gag on her mouth, this time it's one of her s.e.xier lacy panties, such an erotic sight. Her orange eyes lock into mine and the sounds of the world drowns.

She takes off the gag and whispers something in my ears. I stop for a few seconds to process what she wants.

"You sure?" I ask.

She nods.

"I trust you," she says, her smile is adorable.

I pull out of her and pull out two leather belts, I tie one to her arms and the other to her legs. Then I stare again into her eyes and smile, I wrap my hands on her throat and choke her.

She struggles and tries to break free, those leather belts were made for Hana, she's not getting away. She eventually kicks me with both her feet and I fall from the bed, my a.s.s hurts.

This woman is gonna be my wife, I love her and she loves me.

"You b.i.t.c.h, you are gonna pay," I growl at her.

Her eyes turn into fear and she tries to crawl away from me.

"P-please, no, Wolfy, no…"

"Quiet."

I grab the gag and straddle her, I shove it deep into her mouth. She chokes and tries to spit it out but I pull out another belt and tie it around her mouth.

She has accepted that she is not a slave anymore, she's free but she willingly binds herself to me.

"A breeding sow does not need to talk," I spit at her.

She struggles again and tries to break free. I put points into [Enhanced Strength]. This time her kick misses and I pull a rope and tie it around her folded legs. Alissa is not that strong, she focus on being fast and precise, it's rather easy to overpower her.

Now she can't struggle anymore, she's completely immobile. She whimpers behind her gag.

There's still something on her that wants to submit, though, she wants to be forced by me. She desires so much to serve me she wishes she didn't have free will.

I turn the squirming wh.o.r.e around, her a.s.s and p.u.s.s.y are completely exposed to me. She jerks her head and manages to see me pulling my c.o.c.k out with the corner of her eyes.

"No..." I can hear she mutter from behind her gag.

She wants to feel helpless before me. She wants to be raped by me.

I penetrate her, her dripping p.u.s.s.y betrays her acting. Hana might be depraved but Alissa might be the bigger degenerate. This is the small, blurry, curious spot in her heart, she fantasizes on me cheating on her and then raping her. Perhaps I am the biggest degenerate since I am thoroughly enjoying this?

I don't hold back. All I want is to inflict as much pain as possible, I want to make her suffer and crumble beneath me. I choke her and she moans in pleasure and cries in pain.

That's not enough. I pull out of her and bring out our scented lube. I push a finger inside her a.s.shole and cast the strongest [Clean] I can muster, her whole body s.h.i.+vers in response. I spread a generous amount of lube on my c.o.c.k, then I aim it at her second entrance.

She jerks her body again to look at me, now there it is, genuine fear.

"This is your lesson, you wh.o.r.e."

I push my big fat c.o.c.k inside her small virgin a.s.shole. She screams in pain, blood drips out her and a towel appears below us to catch the drops of blood. I pull it out, I cast [Heal] on her a.s.s, [Clean] on my d.i.c.k and apply more lube. She's not bleeding anymore but it doesn't mean she's not in pain. I penetrate her again.

She whimpers with every thrust. I feel her a.s.shole tighten and pulse with every heartbeat, this amount of tight puts Lina to shame. I steel myself and pound her harder, her cute small a.s.s turns red as her a.s.s cheeks clap on my thighs.

I choke her harder and I see her struggle to breathe, I leave just a bit of room so she doesn't pa.s.s out. I bite her shoulder and with my free hand I pinch her c.l.i.t, I pull on it hard and she yells in pain, the sound pa.s.sing through the gag. Tears roll through her face.

I c.u.m inside her in a way I never came before, it fills her insides and overflows. I stay like this for a while, her a.s.s drips with my c.u.m and her p.u.s.s.y drips with her wetness. Slowly I break my hold and she gasps for air. I remove her gag and she coughs.

I lay on top of her and hug her, my d.i.c.k still inside her.

I look to the side and Hana is on her fours being fisted by Roxanne, looking at us with begging eyes, she wants to be next. Ciel and Lina are frozen in confusion, disgust, fear, and extreme arous.e.m.e.nt.

I pull out of Alissa and push it inside Hana's mouth for her to clean. Then I move behind Hana and Roxanne leaves. I clean Hana's a.s.shole while she tongues Alissa's, trying to take out any remaining c.u.m.

"f.u.c.king wh.o.r.es, the both of you."

I penetrate Hana, for her I put less lube. She yelps in pain and holds her mouth. Every thrust she cries, she cries while smiling, her tears wet the sheets. I don't heal Hana so the smell of blood starts to enter my nose.

Instead of feeling disgust I feel pleasure at the smell of blood, I will make Hana bleed and cry. I increase my speed and her a.s.shole tightens so much I need more lube. I clean most of the blood and apply a generous amount of lube.

Roxanne is fingering Hana while they kiss. Every few seconds Hana moans and cries, breaking their kiss. During these moments Roxanne smiles like a maniac while she appreciates the show.

I grow tired and stop holding myself, I feel it come and Hana tightens purposefully. I c.u.m a huge amount again and a mix of blood and c.u.m overflows out of her.

I pull it out and flop down on our huge bed.

"Uh... The taste of blood ruins it," Hana says, a little apologetic.

Alright then. I cast [Clean] on myself.

I look at Alissa, her face is back to normal but it's wet with tears. I untie her and she immediately pushes me down, her mouth devours my d.i.c.k.

With lots of enthusiasm but still with delicacy she stimulates me perfectly, she pays proper attention to that special spot, the frenulum. A small strip of flesh that's especially delicate and sensitive, she applies special attention to it.

Her words ring in my head "I am your wh.o.r.e, your c.o.c.k-sleeve, your s.e.x toy. Hurt me, **** me, show who owns me". I let it repeat in my head, the perfect s.e.xy whisper on my ears turned on the beast in me. I close my eyes and c.u.m on her mouth, she doesn't slow down her movements and not a single white drop can be seen, she swallowed it all.

"Thank you for the meal, master," she says with an innocent smile.

She casts [Clean] on her mouth and lays down besides me.

"Wow..." That's all I can say.

"Yes," she says.

Hana is sprawled on the bed while Roxanne plays with her hair.

"That was amazing to watch," Roxanne says.

Lina and Ciel are naked, they are wet and their breaths are haggard, their hands glisten in their own juices. They just finished furiously masturbating.

"I'm not complaining but what's gotten into you?" I ask Alissa.

"I wanted to push things a little further because of what Gify showed us..." She starts.

Gify pops into the bed.

"Gih!"

"Yes, you. Gify showed us your heart and I have been thinking what it meant."

"What exactly did you see?"

"Two seas divided by a wall, one is stormy and the other is paradise. Slowly the wall crumbles while storm recedes at the same speed. I want to make sure the storm is gone before the wall falls apart entirely. That storm, what is bothering you?"

For now there's only one thing that keeps popping in my mind every once in a while, something I push away immediately.

"Hmm... Whenever I think about fighting other people I hear the s.p.a.ce mage we killed shrieking…"

The girls quickly recover from their stupor after my words.

"We all have painful memories, they eventually fade if we don't feed them," Alissa says.

"I keep remembering Wolfy on top of the body of that woman with his hand missing," Lina says, she frowns and looks down.

Ciel pulls Lina on a hug and smothers her on her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Sha pats Lina and the face of the little dwarf melts on a smile.

"What do these memories make you two feel?" Ciel asks.

"Fear, fear of hearing any of you scream like her," I say.

"Fear that I will one day find Wolfy looking worse than that," Lina says.

I free Lina of her pillows and pull her into a hug. I feel her softness as our naked and sweaty bodies touch each other. My limp p.e.n.i.s touches her a.s.s and I feel her s.h.i.+ver, Lina's a.s.s is certainly gonna be tighter than Alissa's.

"I think we all fear the same as Lina, it's just that we don't let those thoughts influence our mood," Ciel says.

"We have to deal with problems as they come, to dwell on fear will only hold you back," Hana says.

"But fear is what keeps us from doing stupid things," Roxanne says.

"I know... I just need to get used to controlling it," I say.

"Self-control is the thing you lack, we talked about this after you fought the Red Smile," Ciel says.

"I have been getting better," I smile wryly.

"Yes you have. There was one last thing, something unpleasant buried deep inside you," Alissa says.

I know myself well, there's only one thing I'm trying to bury, to forget.

"Must be about home... Or rather, my former home."

I grit my teeth, I do not want to be reminded of Earth again. Alissa grabs my face and looks into my eyes.

"If you ever need to get something out of you, we are here to listen to you," she says.

I smile again at her earnest concern. I know talking helps but I don't want to talk about it now.

"I will be here to do the same," I say and I kiss her lips lightly.

"And you too," she kisses Lina's forehead, making her smile shyly.

"Anyway, what did you girls feel from Gify?" I ask.

"The same as Alissa, except 'paradise' was the warmth of the sun," Hana says.

"Yeah, I felt incredible sweetness," Roxanne says.

"I felt like I was being hugged really tight," Ciel says.

"I felt safe and comfortable," Lina says.

"Kweh!" Aoi felt big and strong.

"Did he show the feelings you have to each other?" I ask.

"He showed ours," Hana says with a beaming smile, she pulls Roxanne into a hug," I felt something clinging on my back very hard.

"I... Felt like a warm and comfy blanket was all over me," Roxanne says with a blush, she averts her eyes.

The other girls just shake their heads.

I get erect between Lina's a.s.s cheeks. She's spent for now so I grab Roxanne, who didn't get enough love today.

I cover her body with kisses while I caress it and apply some [Ma.s.sage] to her.

"I will show you my sweetness, then," I say.

I think about touching those horns and that tail again but I think twice. I need energy for tomorrow and she's gonna suck my lifespan if I go with the first idea.

She's already wet from playing with Hana so I immediately enter her. With every thrust I apply the smallest amount of force, sliding in and out with the utmost of gentleness. I oil her nipples and rub them with just enough strength so it would feel good and not tickle.

I kiss her lips and suck on her tongue, I guide it around and stimulate every part equally. I [Ma.s.sage] her mouth with my tongue. I explore her mouth and made sure she was breathless before I broke the kiss and moved down to play with her nipples with my mouth.

Every thrust elicits a long and soft moan, slowly growing into intensity, her voice is pure s.e.xyness. She syncs her body with mine, every s.h.i.+ver, every movement is filled with her sensuality. She's impossibly intoxicating.

With my free hand I find her c.l.i.t and caress it, making her gasp and moan harder. As her body approached climax her back arched, her legs quiver and her insides tightened like no other can, squeezing another shot from me. I feel my mind clear, her hold over me wanes.

I leave the clean up to Hana, who picks up where I left off and gently makes Roxanne climax again. Now I'm finally spent.

­

I help Lina replace the broken tooth on Hana's sword with the use of [Manipulate Metal]. I think that soon Lina will learn this spell.

"Say, Hana, didn't you deal with snotty n.o.bles like Ankara on your travels?" Roxanne asks.

"Yeah," she stops ma.s.saging Roxanne's head, "Well, most of the annoying ones wanted to dangle their little c.o.c.ks in front of me to suck so the reasons I dislike them are different than why I dislike Ankara."

Alissa lifts her eyes from her book.

"You swear too much, Hana, you should change this behavior," she says with a slight disapproving tone.

"Hmm... That would be hard..." Hana turns her head away, "After I learned [Taunt] these things became ingrained in my mind."

Alissa rolls her eyes.

"But how did you deal with the n.o.bles?" Roxanne asks.

"Mostly ignoring, if they try to brag you act dumb and uninterested, that squashes their motivation to talk to you."

"Not like you had to try hard to act dumb."

Hana flickers her forehead.

"Ow..." Roxanne rubs the reddening skin.

"You deserved it" Hana looks at her with cold eyes.

"I did," Roxanne smiles, unrepentant.

"Anyway," her warmth comes back, "Others try to buy you, there's no way than just flat out denying them, if you leave any detail uncertain they will come back and keep insisting."

"The only one you would sell yourself to is Wolfy," she taps Hana's scales on her cheek.

"Don't even need to sell, I would have stolen him for myself if I wasn't a Blood Slave," her man-eating gaze strikes me, giving me a chill. "Ankara is the last kind, he's a little b.i.t.c.h, you gotta walk carefully with him. You must always keep your distance, you can't give him a reason to talk to you, you have to appear as unapproachable as possible, then he will leave you alone. Problem is, you can't really offend him, that just makes the stubborn idiot to come after you harder."

"That's going to be difficult," I say.

"Ankara would use whatever he has to get what he wants, I bet he's a schemer like Vanea," anger flickers on her voice, "The best way to avoid fighting him is keeping away from him."

The best way to play a rigged game is to not play.

"You don't have to swallow your pride, Wolfy," Ciel says, "You just have to make sure you deny him without offending him."

"Alright, I get it. I guess it's not really a good thing to have the group leader be hot-headed."

Lina hugs me and smiles. From the few expressions she shows I know this one means pride.

"Better you than me, I would have blown off on him already," Hana says, then she smiles bitterly, "Father would always deal with these types when they started to get too annoying, I was never good at being delicate with the n.o.bles."

"I have a feeling that none of us is particularly experienced or comfortable in dealing with these kinds of n.o.bles," Alissa says, she looks to the girls and their expressions tell they agree with Alissa, although they do not express it openly.

"I guess this is just one of the jobs of a leader, no job is perfect," I shrug.

Alissa gives me a sympathetic look, not even she wants to save me from this.

I heal Hana before we sleep. Alissa s.n.a.t.c.hed Gify and curled around him. I don't think that nature spirits sleep but he started snoring in a cute high pitched voice a minute after that.

Tonight Roxanne clung to me with a silly smile, her tail caressing any part of my body it could reach.

­

Today is the 13th.

Roxanne wakes me up. When I open my eyes I see that her face and gla.s.ses are plastered with my s.e.m.e.n, her expression is frozen in surprise as she couldn't predict when I would climax. I feel like I found my next fetish to indulge in.

My [Blessing Magic] and [Mana Control] increased by 1 (now 4+17 and 0+10). Yesterday's large area casting helped.

­

Alissa groans as she sits on the chair, I cast [Heal] on her.

"It wasn't like that yesterday," she says.

Lina seems to be looking at Alissa with a lot of worry.

"Don't worry, little Lina," Roxanne says with an evil grin, "You will definitely survive when Wolfy's fat c.o.c.k rips your a.s.shole open."

Lina fidgets, her mouth moves but no word comes out. Ciel ma.s.sages her eyes as she chews her food.

"I don't even feel disgusted. We are definitely not a normal family," she says.

"Slowly we all sink into depravity," I smile, I'm imagining we all having an orgy while we eat lunch. Hana would definitely season her food with man sauce.

Fortunately for us we chose a room far away from the others so they didn't hear a thing from us. We finish our breakfast and go find Lyle, his groups is finis.h.i.+ng theirs.

"We will leave an earth elemental and a fire elemental, they will stay at the door so don't go out. I allowed you to command them during battle but the first order is to avoid it. I can see and hear through the earth elemental so if something bad happens I will know," I say.

Lyle sighs and nods.

"Shame we couldn't see you guys fighting," Gwinevere pouts.

I'm seriously unsure if she's a lesbian or if she simply enjoys carnage, maybe a bit of both.

"Then we will be off."

They wave to us and we leave.

"You okay with leaving, Lina?" I ask.

She raises her head to me and her gloomy eyes brighten with a small smile.

"It's okay, I'm not letting you fight without me."

Oof, my heart.

­

We walk fast and reach the hedge maze entrance. I summon two Holly's, they will go deeper to each side of the maze, then they will stay at the corners and follow whatever appears.

I leave a [Gate] "coordinate" at the entrance of the maze. I do not want to directly teleport in front of the castle or anywhere in possible view of Ankara.

The Holly's can fly high and look over the maze, but oddly the more they look the less I see, I can't make a mental map of what I see, it seems to be illusion magic. Unfortunately I can't give [Mental Resistance] to my summons. This d.a.m.n place is enchanted to h.e.l.l and back.

As we enter the maze I summon a spirit elemental.

"Explore the area," I order.

It crosses the hedge and immediately dies.

"What the…"

"What?" Alissa asks.

I touch the dead hedge row. The leaves crumble to the touch but they immediately reform in a black sludge. I approach my face to the hedge, I feel a very faint amount of mana emitting from it. I push my hand into deeper only to feel it touch something solid. I dig out the surrounding leaves and branches, I see a pure black wall, this is what's emitting trace amounts of mana.

"This destroyed my spirit elemental," I say.

"No cheating for you then," Ciel says with a smile.

"That's just more work for us…"

"Cheater no cheating," she puts her hands on her hips.

I shrug with a smile and we continue.

Roxanne's distance approximations for spells and Lina's inherent architecture affinity give them both a good sense of distance so they are responsible for mapping. Hana and Ciel's senses are better for shorter distances. Alissa has the best sense of distance but she's at the front, behind Hana, she's going be sniffing for traps.

On a particularly long corridor huge bardiches suddenly materialize in the air. A second later they start swinging, it's the cliche trap of swinging weapons.

"That's exactly the same as the symbol on the dungeoneering guild," I say.

"It's not a symbol by mere coincidence," Roxanne says.

"Still, I'm not sure how I feel," I say, "A mix of disappointed and amused. I feel like I'm back into one of my VR games."

"'VR'?" Lina asks.

"Er, I'll explain later."

"I feel like I'm into one of my books," Alissa says with a smile.

Hana frowns.

"You guys are getting way too distracted," she says.

"Hahah...," I laugh awkwardly, "Anyway, no need for all of us to risk crossing. I will go with Hana and open a [Gate] for you all."

I feel a slight displeasure from Alissa but she's learning to trust me more.

Hana keeps one hand over my shoulder and we both keep our s.h.i.+elds raised. It's one thing to do this inside of a game, it's another to do it in real life where you can hear and feel the breeze caused by the bardiches cutting the air.

One by one we slowly pa.s.s by them. At the end there's no room to wait between each bardiche.

"We gotta run the last stretch," I say.

"Let me carry you, I'll definitely survive a hit from one of these, no big deal."

"The casual way you put yourself in harms way concerns me."

"I swore to myself I would go through the depths of h.e.l.l to save you, " she hits her chest with her fist.

"T-that does not mean you gotta hurt yourself so casually!"

Her resolve moves me a little.

"You got a better solution?" She looks into my eyes and raises an eyebrow.

Well...

"No…"

She grins. She stores her s.h.i.+eld and sword in her [Item Box], then she picks me up princess-style. I store my sword inside my "Items".

"You actually do like when I carry you like this?"

"Yes, I have no shame."

She laughs, then she breathes twice. The bardiches open up, she runs. Hana is capable of moving faster than me, her longer legs give her even more of an advantage.

The sound of bardiches cutting through the air gives me chills, stale air blows in my face. She stomps the ground loudly and the sound of air being cut increases, the bardiches are cutting closer, she's not fast enough.

A blade appears on her side, I cast [Telekinesis] and hold the blade in place for a second. Another blade appears, I can't cast it again fast enough. Hana hunches over and jumps.

I fall on the ground and roll, I regain my balance and land on my knees. I skid and sc.r.a.pe my gloved hand on the ground. I look back and Hana is sprawled on the ground.

She lifts her head up with a s.h.i.+t-eating grin that makes me mad as h.e.l.l. Her brigandine has a huge gash on the back, I see a glimmer of the metal plates below the cloth.

"You okay?" I ask.

"Yep, the fur padding absorbed most of the shock."

I breathe in relief. I open a [Gate] for the girls. For this small distance this spell uses very little mana.

"You got hit," Ciel says.

Roxanne runs her fingers through Hana's armor and frowns.

"It's fine," Hana says, she pats Roxanne's cheeks.

Roxanne lightly punches her, not that she could have felt it due to the armor. Lina pulls out a sewing kit and does emergency repairs on the cloth.

­

We enter another particularly long corridor, a few steps in Alissa stops. She looks down and stomps her foot in the ground.

"It's hollow," she says.

I have to strain myself to notice the difference, the concrete slabs that make up the floor must be quite thick.

"Well, prepare to run at any moment," I say.

"I will keep an eye on the back, it could be another challenge like the bardiches," Ciel says.

"True."

"Hana, I will have to go in the front, there's a big chance that there's a b.u.t.ton or wire somewhere," Alissa says.

Hana nods and we slowly move forward.

Half way in Ciel's idea was proven correct, the first hollow slab we stepped on suddenly disappears into darkness.

"RUN!" She yells.

I realize I should have let them wait and use [Gate] like last time...

The slabs fall with a noise of stone sc.r.a.ping on stone, a few seconds later we hear a m.u.f.fled sound of stone breaking.

Half way along the corridor the slabs stop falling. We stop for a second to understand what happened. Alissa taps the slabs again.

"These ones are hollow! Don't stop!" She yells.

The moment we start running again the slabs just behind us start falling. It was a trap in a trap, made for us to waste time looking back.

I lift Lina by the armpits and start running faster. Roxanne slows down, Aoi jumps from Roxanne's shoulder to my back and curls around my neck, she gives a small lick on my cheek.

"I will just float, d.a.m.n stupid traps," Roxanne mumbles.

Her bat wings materialize, then she crosses her legs and slowly floats after us. With our two snails neutralized we manage to pick up speed and run faster than the falling slabs.

Alissa slows down near the end of the corridor and stomps the slabs again.

"Those are fine."

I slow down and catch my breath. I kiss the forehead of the cute small animal cuddling on my chest and let her down. A minute later Roxanne lands behind us. Aoi gives me another lick then runs back to Roxanne's shoulder and gives her a small lick, eliciting a smile from Roxanne.

"Weren't you supposed to be training your body?" Ciel asks with a bit of sa.s.s.

"Ye-yeah..." Roxanne purses her lips, trying to remain expressionless.

"The only way to get that one to exercise is by rubbing her tail," Hana says.

"But if we had to do that regularly either you or Wolfy would die," Alissa says.

Roxanne pulls down the brim of her hat in embarra.s.sment.

"Stop picking on me," she says, m.u.f.fled by her hat.

"We are just giving your jokes back," Alissa says with a smug smile.

"So it's revenge then," Roxanne narrows her eyes.

Lina nods vigorously.

"At this point it's a cycle, a never ending cycle of teasing," I say.

My words ring true as no one argues against it.

­

We turn a corner and see a creepy stone dragonoid head standing still mid-air. His long mouth is open and his stone teeth look menacing.

"I don't like that," Alissa says.

She slows down and hides behind Hana.

We approach the statue cautiously, when we are two meters from it its eyes glow green. We immediately hide behind our s.h.i.+elds, Ciel covers Roxanne and I feel she's gathering mana.

A voice comes out of the statue. It has two tones, one is a low rumbling that reverberates in our ears and the other is a deep male voice.

"Dwie kaczki przed dwiema kaczkami, dwie kaczki za dwiema kaczkami i dwie kaczki obok dwóch kaczek. Ile jest kaczek?" The voice says, the only thing I understand is the intonation at the end makes me believe it is a question.

"What in the...," I mutter.

"It's talking in the dragonoid language!" Lina exclaims.

"Can you understand?" Ciel asks.

Lina shakes her head behind her s.h.i.+eld, her bangs flail wildly.

"We only know about written language, we have little idea to how it's p.r.o.nounced. The only hint is when wild dragonoids sometimes exclaim things, most likely expletives…"

"I have a hunch this is a riddle," I say.

"Theeen... We are screwed?" Roxanne asks.

"I think so…"

Lina nods in agreement.

"Czas minął, giń!"

We snap our heads forward, the statue's eyes glow red and its open mouth glows. A fireball is spit out towards Hana, she puts her sword in front and the fireball dissipates. Before we can even talk another fireball flies, then another, and another, and another.

"[Firewall]!"

The fireb.a.l.l.s stop flying and get absorbed by the literal wall of fire, strengthening the wall but consuming more mana. We see only small bulges where the fireb.a.l.l.s try to pa.s.s through.

"I have an idea, get down on the ground, now!" I yell.

Awkwardly we lay our bellies down and put our s.h.i.+elds above us, I try to cover me and Alissa with mine.

"My mana won't last long like this!" Roxanne yells.

I wait and see the bulges on the wall lower. I hear a sound of stone hitting stone and the fireb.a.l.l.s stop a good 60 centimeters above us.

"We can crawl through this! Just keep your heads down!" Hana yells.

"Stop the wall!" I yell.

Roxanne ends the spell and a stream of fireb.a.l.l.s flies through our heads, they continue until they hit the end of the corridor, burning the hedge but doing nothing to the black magical wall.

Slowly and with a bit of difficulty we crawl forward and move past the dragonoid's statue. When the last of us crosses, the statue stops spewing fireb.a.l.l.s and floats back to its original height.

"That was interesting..." Ciel says, she looks at the statue with a bit of amus.e.m.e.nt.

"Should we destroy it?" I ask.

"No!" Lina yells, then she drops her head and her cheeks turn red.

"Okay," I smile to her cuteness.

"We could learn a lot about the dragonoid language if we listen to it," Lina says meekly.

Roxanne looks over the corner.

"Well, I think it might be a bit difficult to find it again, mostly because this maze makes zero sense," she says.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"Lina, come here and check with me, we didn't make a mistake right?" Lina scurries over to Roxanne and they look over the map they were drawing. "If this is right then it makes no sense, this corridor goes way past a path we already pa.s.sed through. Either the maze changed or the dimensions of our map are completely off. This maze barely looks like a maze too, look at this."

The paths we are taking look more like a root system than a neatly packed maze where every single meter is either an explorable corridor or a wall. The path we took clearly looks like there's a single correct way while every other branch ends into a dead end sooner or later. I have been paying attention to the vision of the summons so I haven't been paying attention to the path we took.

"I will put a 'coordinate' here," I say, "Let's go back and double check the map."

We prepare ourselves and run past the dragonoid head. Fireb.a.l.l.s follow after us but Roxanne casts another [Firewall].

We go back to the place where Roxanne thinks the paths intersect and there's nothing wrong there. Now even I can see the maze really isn't warped.

I open a [Gate] back to our previous position and a negligible amount of mana is used. That's odd. I get an Idea

"There's a spell in [s.p.a.ce Magic] called [Warp s.p.a.ce], you can create a house that on the inside is bigger than on the outside," I say.

The girls look confused but Roxanne seems to have an idea of what I'm talking.

"In my world we call it non-euclidean s.p.a.ce. Going into a direction doesn't have the same cost as going in another direction.

"Ah, I remember, it's called warped-distances s.p.a.ce," Roxanne says, "An example, you could say that going north for 5 minutes at a constant speed would make you walk 10 meters, then you walk south for 5 minutes and you end up walking 20 meters."

"That's incredible, I never heard of a dungeon doing something like this," Ciel asks.

"That's because it's commonly used in gauntlet type dungeons where they try to challenge the perception of the adventurer," I say, "These types of dungeons are sets of challenges. They are extremely rare because at the end of the dungeon there's a reward, once the reward is taken normally the dungeon collapses."

"This also kind of confirms there's a treasure chest at the end of this maze," Roxanne says, "Though I'm not sure why the maze is using warped-distances s.p.a.ce, so far it has only made mapping the maze more confusing."

We get the answer to our question at the next corner.

"That's an [Eternal Gate]," Roxanne says.

It's a spell from [s.p.a.ce Magic]. I can only feel trace amounts of mana coming out of it, it's a very well done spell. It's a retangular portal covered by a very thin see-through white cloth, we see the maze on the other side. If it weren't for the "cloth" the portal would be nearly imperceptible.

With zero resistance we pa.s.s through the white "cloth" and the maze gets more annoying, behind us there's no way back, this is a one-way portal.

A small light s.h.i.+nes through the cracks on the ground.

"Faza druga," a dragonoid voice whispers around us.

We warily wait for a few minutes but nothing else happens so we continue our exploration.

­

"This looks familiar," Roxanne says.

"Yes, the portal could have sent us back," Lina says.

A few minutes later we reach a corridor of swinging bardiches. I still have the "coordinate" of the first bardiche corridor. I open the [Gate] and I'm taken to the other side of this corridor, we really did get sent back.

"Cheat," Ciel mutters after she crosses the [Gate].

We enter a corridor and see another portal on it.

"This is different, there was only a dead-end here last time," Roxanne says.

"I guess we gotta map it exhaustively, then," I say.

We enter the portal and slowly the lights of our [Spirit Lights] dim until there's nothing.

"Hold each other!" I yell.

I grab Hana and Lina.

"Role call!" I order.

"Here," Alissa says.

"Here," Hana says.

"Here," Lina says.

"Here," Roxanne says.

"Kweh!" Aoi yells.

"Here," Ciel says.

"Gih!" Gify pops into my shoulder and chirps.

I breathe in relief. Everyone tries to cast [Spirit Light] again but nothing happens, Hana breathes fire and I hear small fireb.a.l.l.s being cast but neither produces any light.

Suddenly our [Spirit Lights] suddenly produce light again and I nearly jump back in surprise.

The hedges were subst.i.tuted by mirrors. Our reflections are repeated endlessly all around us, we look pale from the recent fear of darkness. Now there's a ceiling covering us and square arches hold each mirror in place.

"Creepy as h.e.l.l," Roxanne says.

"Eh, kinda beautiful," Ciel says.

Roxanne looks at her with a crooked smile.

"You know, your sense of beauty is kinda skewed. You enjoy the dungeons way too much."

In other words, Ciel is kind of an adrenaline junkie.

"What?" Ciel shrugs, "I just like seeing new things, things that impress me."

"Yeah, dangerous things, you are addicted to having your heart beat fast."

"I agree with Ciel, dungeons can give us some very interesting experiences," Alissa says.

"You are both weird," Roxanne shakes her head.

"Look who's talking," Ciel says with a hint of sa.s.s.

"Ei, I'm a fun person."

"Better being like this than being a blood l.u.s.ting weirdo," Alissa says.

Now Hana pouts.

"I don't think she was referencing you," I say to Hana.

"Oh..." Hana looks away with embarra.s.sment.

The fact that Hana a.s.sumed she was being talked about tells us all we need about how Hana sees herself.

"Just admit you are all weirdos, I'm a weirdo and so is Lina too," I say, Lina looks down in sadness, "It doesn't matter, you are all good people and I love you all."

Though Hana and Alissa are more on the depraved side than on the weird side. Ciel rolls her eyes and gives me a kiss on the cheek.

"You and your honeyed words," she says.

"Well then...?" I look at the others.

After a row of kisses, a lick, and a head rub from Gify we move on. Or try to move on, Alissa gets highly disoriented in this maze.

"Too much movement, it's making me dizzy," she says.

Perhaps her eyes see too much detail. Dozens of our reflections plus our [Spirit Lights] must be too much information for her.

"Focus on the ground, keep looking at the corner between the wall and where the ground should be," I say.

Looking forward disorients yourself too much.

In the end all this one does is make us waste time, we finally reach another portal and we are taken back into a familiar hedge corridor. We take our time there and have our lunch.

We pa.s.s through the falling slabs again, I put a "coordinate" and run along with only Hana, then I teleport the girls. After that we reach again the floating stone dragonoid head, it immediately starts spewing fireb.a.l.l.s. This time with a [Firewall] placed right on its face we crawl past it faster.

­

We enter another portal and I feel trace amounts of mana behind us. Me, Roxanne, and Ciel look up, there's a large and perfectly round boulder floating above us.

"This is bad, RUN!" I yell.

I saw that movie, I saw how this goes.

We start running and the sound of stone sc.r.a.ping on stone can be heard behind us. The hedges aren't 90º degrees corners anymore, they curve smoothly, allowing the large boulder to continue forward without losing much momentum.

After a minute of running Alissa yells.

"The boulder is not getting faster or slower, this is weird!"

"Everyone stop and fire a single spell at it on my signal then run!" I yell.

I keep running for a few seconds longer, then we reach a straight corridor.

"Now!"

We turn around and multiple [Earth Bullets], a [Torrent] a [Wind Hammer] and Aoi's fireball are sent towards the boulder. Cool guys don't look at explosions so we start running again.

We hear the sound of gla.s.s cracking and the sound of the boulder stops. We finally look back to see a large amount of gla.s.s chunks spread all over the corridor. The boulder only had a small crust made of stone. In the middle a small green gem can be seen, this is what was moving the boulder.

In the next few seconds the chunks turn grey and melt, slowly they evaporate into nothing.

"You know, this place is kinda crazy," I say.

"Agreed," Roxanne says.

"Eh, it's fun," Hana says.

Alissa and Ciel nod in agreement.

"Why do we have to run so much..." Lina says and pouts.

I pat her head. I actually like running, but I understand the short legs of a dwarf make this more tiring for her than for us.

­

On the last corridor that we explore we see a portal.

"It should be ending soon," Ciel says.

"Good, my feet are tired," Roxanne says.

I feel a sudden burst of mana in front of us, the world loses color, I look forward and Alissa is not there anymore. I look at the ground and a small circular formation is glowing and slowly fading. f.u.c.k f.u.c.k f.u.c.k f.u.c.k f.u.c.k.

"Teleport trap!" Roxanne yells.

I focus on my connection with Alissa. I can still sense it but I can't discern the distance or the direction. No no no no.

I drop a "coordinate" and jump into the glowing circle.

Nothing happens.

f.u.c.kING f.u.c.k f.u.c.k t.i.tS f.u.c.k c.u.m PUS f.u.c.k!

Wait! this maze didn't have a single real enemy, she's not in immediate danger. It's okay, she's fine, she's gonna be fine. We have time to find her, lots of time, I can still go back to Lyle, teleport them all on the outskirts of Rabanara and spend however long here to find her. Consequences be d.a.m.ned, I will hide behind Vanea's oath to escape the empire if the fact that I can use [Gate] becomes known.

I look at my Emergency Ring, it glows green. She's fine, everything is fine, we will find her, this is just a prank/hahah funny/you got trolled type of dungeon. f.u.c.k whoever thought random teleportation traps were a good idea, I hope you are burning in h.e.l.l.

I turn my Emergency Ring green, I'm fine, everything is fine. Wait, f.u.c.k, I'm dumb, I'm so f.u.c.king dumb, I'm so ma.s.sively f.u.c.king dumb. MORSE CODE, I COULD HAVE TAUGHT HER MORSE CODE SO WE COULD TALK IF SOMETHING EXACTLY LIKE THIS EVER HAPPENED.

I hit my head with my palm. Someone hugs me from behind.

"Wolfy, calm down," Ciel whispers into my ears.

Roxanne, Hana, and Lina surround me. I'm really thankful I have them around to keep me straight.

"I-I'm calm, I just remembered something I could have taught her so we could communicate through the Emergency Rings," I say.

Ciel looks at me puzzled, I think she has an idea of what I'm talking about.

"Maybe we should have bought that lithograph you once talked about," Hana says.

"Yeah, maybe, but we have to focus on the now," Ciel says.

"We are going back and scouring through what we already explored," I say.

The girls nod and we quickly move on. I still have my "coordinates" so the journey will be much faster.

­

She's not there, we wasted a whole hour searching for nothing. I have us quickly go back to the last portal, I hit myself for not leaving a "coordinate" there.

We return and cross the last portal, while the maze so far was rather straightforward, this part is a complete mess. Corridors that bend smoothly, circles and circles upon circles, corridors that go endlessly only to end up looping on itself. Even the square slabs that were being used to help with measuring distance now are a complete patchwork. Roxanne and Lina have to stress themselves to measure distances and during all this time my anxiety increases.

"We have to move faster," I say.

"We don't know if there would be other traps," Hana says, her eyebrows scrunch up in concern.

I grit my teeth, I'm not the kind to be reckless but the anxiety is pus.h.i.+ng me towards that way.

I put down a "coordinate" every minute or so. I only have 7 slots and 5 of them are being used for other places. I step on every slab and walk sideways so I step on every part of the corridor just so I can make sure no one else falls to these traps.

I end up falling to 3 teleportation traps, vindicating my behavior. I yell Alissa's name every so often and also whenever I fall into a trap, but I hear nothing in return.

I return from the fourth trap, I'm getting a headache. This is the 77th coordinate I have put down and no sign of Alissa.

I feel a pain in one of my fingers, I look at it and my Emergency Ring is glowing red. I feel Alissa is on the move, though I still can't feel her direction or distance.

"f.u.c.k! We have to move faster!" I yell.

The girls frown but Roxanne nods.

"Lina, we have to deal with only making a rough sketch, pay attention to the map and nothing else," Roxanne says.

Lina nods and we start jogging.

More curves, more weird bends, more loops, more crossroads. f.u.c.k this place.

­

"Czas minął, giń!" Whispers a dragonoid voice.

I feel mana gathering behind us. We all turn and ready our s.h.i.+elds, a stone dragonoid head appears from behind a corner, his eyes are red and his mouth is glowing.

We instantly chuck multiple spells at it, making it blow into multiple pieces.

"Well, that's a waste," Ciel says.

The pieces start to float again and in a few seconds the dragonoid face is reconstructed.

"Ah f.u.c.king h.e.l.l, run!" I yell.

We turn the corner as a fireball flies pasts us and burns part of the hedge.

We keep running, the map be d.a.m.ned, we are relying on pure memory now. The only good thing being that the stone head doesn't fly fast, Lina isn't going to get tired from running so soon.

I have to do something, I have to find a way to get back to Alissa, some way, somehow. My "Companion" connection with her is useless I have to do something else, the Holly's can't see movement inside the maze, whatever s.p.a.ce warp is used here is very strong.

I look at my Emergency Ring, there must be a way that information is transferred between them, it works even in a spatial distortion, there must be something special with it.

"Hold the stone head for me for a second," I say and stop.

I turn my Emergency Ring green and "extend" my soul over it. I feel something and then it's gone. I turn it off then on again. Same thing, there's really something going on. It uses a single point of my mana to work, it's sending that mana somewhere.

I focus all my attention on that ring and turn it. I felt something, it went north-west.

"Done! Move!"

I see that the stone head is decreasing its regeneration time, soon enough it might be unstoppable.

We run more and I stop again, still north-west.

I fell on a teleportation trap, I immediately come back.

We run and stop again, west.

We run and stop again, west.

We run and stop again, north-west.

We run and stop again, north.

I fell on another teleportation trap, I come back with the stone head almost on top of me. My sword eats the fireb.a.l.l.s as I catch up with the girls. The fireb.a.l.l.s are quite powerful, I think I can only eat about 5 of them before the emellanat melts.

We run and stop again, north.

"ALISSA!" I yell.

We run and stop again, north.

We run and stop again, north.

"ALISSA!"

"WOLF!"

f.u.c.kING FINALLY.

Alissa appears on a corner, color comes back to my world. I run up to her and fall on another teleportation trap. f.u.c.k YOU MAZE!

I come back to a deathly pale Alissa, she immediately runs up to me. I hug her tight, the sweet smell of her hair fills my nose. Stupid f.u.c.king dungeon.

"We have to go!" Hana yells.

I look away from the face of my love to see that we are cornered by the stone heads on both sides.

"Move forward!" I yell and release Alissa.

Alissa's stalker must still be weaker than ours. We blow it up and run past it.

Alissa guides us through the path she didn't take, her memory is quite good. We loop a few times back into already explored territory but we slowly map out this last part of the maze.

Lina and Roxanne tire out again, me and Hana have to carry them.

A few minutes after I notice the heads are not following us anymore. We continue exploring and meet up face-to-face with one of the heads, we run away and the stone head stops at a certain point.

"What the h.e.l.l?" I mutter.

This happens twice, there's a small area that it seems the heads do not move past.

"The end must be around here!" Roxanne exclaims.

s.h.i.+t, that's true.

­

We slow down and carefully map the area. Ciel carries Lina when my arms get tired. After a spiral we reach a portal.

Beyond the portal is a very long wooden chest, it's gilded with gold and silver, a golden dragonoid face is gilded on the front.

"Finally..." I mutter.

We release our breaths and nearly collapse, the tension of the chase slips away.

We slowly walk up to the chest. Alissa fires an arrow on it and we stand ready.

Nothing happens.

"Good, no mimic," Ciel says.

I approach the chest and put a hand on the handle.

"Together now," I say.

We all lift up the chest lid.

There's a beautiful spear inside it. The shaft is made of a piece of brown wood with multiple tin black circles on it. There's a single gem above the area where normally one would grip it one handed. The shape of the tip is simple, it is made of glossy grey wood. There's an intricate wavy pattern carved all over it and filled with silver.

"An elven spear," Alissa says.

Roxanne nods in agreement.

"From the High Forest, specifically," she says.

The elves from the High Forest use wood on their weapons. They can harden it and enchant it to have similar strength and edge to steel.

"I guess this means this dungeon is just a fragment of dragonoid culture instead of being a proper tomb," Lina says with a hint of disappointment,"No way a high elven spear would be found inside it otherwise."

I put points on [Wood Appraisal].

"The shaft is made of high quality heartwood from the Hearthtree while the tip is made from the bark of the Tree of the Stalwart."

"No idea what this means but I a.s.sume it is good," Hana says, her eyes glued to the spear.

"Same," I shrug.

Ciel looks enviously at Hana, her glaive is more versatile but it seems this spear is enchanted. Hana picks the spear and pours mana in it, it's 2 meters tall and in a second it stretches to 2.5 meters tall.

"Now that's amazing," Hana says, nearly drooling.

"Hopefully it won't break," Roxanne says.

"If a high elven spear breaks easily I will stab the nearest golden elf with it," Hana says and chuckles.

We hear a hiss going upwards and an explosion, we look up and fireworks fill the sky. Multiple colors and shapes, explosion upon explosion upon explosion fills the cave with light and a rainbow of sparkles.

"Gratulacje, wygrywasz!" A very loud dragonoid voice yells, it shakes our bones and nearly hurts our ears.

The cave turns silent and a chill runs trough my back.

"We have to go," I say.

I open a [Gate] back to the outside of the maze.

­

The elementals at the entrance to the castle saw and heard the fireworks, a s.p.a.ce mage popped his head out of the castle for a second to see what was happening. There is no doubt in my mind that the undead inside that forest have seen or heard this, we have to run away.

We reach the castle and everyone is on the entrance waiting for us.

I stop in my tracks and nearly trip. One of the Holly's see 6 shadows moving towards her at incredible speed, 5 shadows run past her while one takes flight. It's a white scaled dragonoid with a black glow, destruction types are very sensitive to spells. It charges Holly with a spear and before it strikes I dismiss both Hollys.

"The undead are coming towards us! Run!" I yell.

Everyone's faces pale and Tankar grips his sword.

"Ciel, make sure no one falls behind!" I order.

Her face shows fear for a second, perhaps she thought she could be left behind? Right now she's the best for this. I keep my gaze stern and color returns to her face, she makes up her resolve and nods to me.

"Move!"

­

I summon a small bird, I tell it to hide and observe at the first gatehouse. We are reaching the second gatehouse when the bird spots the dragonoid undead. I can feel the bird's life slipping away as the undead approach, I dismiss it and form a plan.

We reach the tunnel and I stop.

"Alissa, Ciel, Lina, you three go with Lyle and escort them to the bottom of the tower. Once there you turn the Emergency Ring green. Me, Roxanne, and Hana will hold this tunnel until then."

I dismiss the fire elemental and summon two earth elementals and a wind elemental.

"What!? No!" Alissa yells.

"No time to argue! The undead are almost on top of us! Overload the scaffold and it should be fast!" I pull Alissa close and whisper in her ear, "I can use [Gate] to reach the cave, I need Lyle away so we can fight at full power."

She grits her teeth and clenches her fist. She gives me an angry kiss on the cheek and they run away, I see Lina is extremely anxious. She leaves with 2 earth elementals and the wind elemental. I'm left with the last earth elemental.

Hana pulls out her new spear. She and Roxanne are very tense. Aoi is quiet and focused, her monster nature makes her a natural for combat.

"Let's see how well this holds out," Hana says and smiles fearsomely.

I take away 2 points from [Mana Recovery] and add them to [Earth Magic], making it 2+3, now I can use [Earth Wall].

"We'll be fine, drink an elixir and we can keep them away," I say.

I drink one too and smile to Roxanne. Gify pops into my shoulder.

"Gih, giih, gih!"

Roxanne chuckles.

"What did he say?" I ask.

"Something about lizard barbecue, he wants me to give him a piece of those dragonoids."

I'm unsure how a nature spirit would react to eating undead but whatever, he helped Roxanne relax.

With Hana at the middle and me and the elemental flanking her, the tunnel gets a bit cramped. But that's enough to hold back the undead.

­

Two minutes later 6 shadowy figures appear. They hide behind their round s.h.i.+elds like a phalanx, except there's 3 on top, making it a vertical wall of s.h.i.+elds.

I feel my lungs get filled with the smell of acetone, it burns my insides and my eyes water. I feel s.h.i.+vers run through my entire body, my bones instinctively tell me to run, that this presence is wrong. Small particles of dust slowly stop moving and get suspended in the air, another sign of reality bending to the presence of the undead.

The calming feeling of water running through my shoulder clears my head. For a second Gify links our minds, our fears turn into one but so does our courage. We stand our ground united, we are in sync.

They all charge at the same time, a wall of spears thrust into us. They are not using pikes, with this Hana's spear is longer. Her spear bends one of the s.h.i.+elds and penetrates it slightly. The elemental takes a spear on the arm, it barely scratches him. Roxanne lets out a [Ice Lance] in the middle, helping Hana hold them back. I cast [Earth Wall] on the ceiling, the top 3 spears get stuck into the wall I made.

I feel mana gathering. Two breaths of fire slip through the s.h.i.+eld gaps and get dissipated by mine and Hana's swords. Hana is holding her sword with her s.h.i.+eld hand just for the spell"absorbing effect.

"[EXPLOSION]!"

Blood and small pieces of meat fly through the gaps, all s.h.i.+elds retreat except the one on the middle which falls down on the ground. A pool of meat and blood is all that remains, I see the 5 dragonoid eyes peek around their s.h.i.+elds. They look at their fallen brethren.

"Spirits!" I order.

We all cast another [Spirit Light] and throw the b.a.l.l.s towards them. The undead retreat even more.

"Humanoids, surrender. None of you will escape us," I hear an ethereal dragonoid voice, it's raspy and shaky.

There's no reason to provoke them, we keep our mouths shut.

I feel the blood drops that spilled on my face suddenly move, I get frightened and nearly smack myself. The blood drop escapes through my hand and floats back to where the undead exploded.

His body slowly pieces together and a few minutes later he's standing again, it's the destruction type dragonoid. He has white scales, black lines that wave and glow, two long spiral horns that circle many times over his temples, and a pair of penetrating eyes.

"Humanoid, we will turn you into servants. Surrender now and you will suffer no torture" His voice is not ethereal anymore, it's only slightly raspy and deep toned.

Yeah, no.

He looks at us for a few seconds, then he grabs his s.h.i.+eld and returns to the s.h.i.+eld wall.

"So be it then, you made your choice," the raspiness of his voice is gone.

The more time they take the better for us. The s.h.i.+eld wall reforms and move forward, they strike the [Spirit Lights] and they disappear in a flash. I see their spears tremble, it takes them a minute return to normal.

Wind picks up dust and nearly blinds us. I feel a lump of mana is coming, I lift my s.h.i.+eld and a blunt strike of compacted air hits me. I look forward and the tip of a spear is coming towards me, I parry with ease, the elixir is doing its job.

Small lumps of earth fall in front of us. My [Earth Wall] is being dismantled by the destruction type.

They strike again and again and again, merely trying to overpower us. It's good for us that their mana powers are low, their breaths and wind strikes are weak. They lost some of their affinity to their mana once they turned undead.

We are slowly pushed back into the tunnel, better for us as it got cramped. Suddenly 2 of them break off and stay behind, I get a bad feeling from this. I retreat from the line and stay in front of Roxanne.

The undead try to trample us over, they try a suicide charge. I cast [Earth Wall] twice and close the tunnel, trapping 2 of them in the middle of my walls. Their bodies are crushed and nearly split into two. One of them dies and Hana cuts down the other, slowly their bodies turns into grey mush and seep back behind the wall.

I put down my wooden log barricade and fuse it with the [Earth Wall].

My wall and the logs are slowly chipped away by the fire and wind types. Once a hole is opened I get a feeling of "death". To my side a rumbling sound comes out and the wall crumbles, the falling stone simply disappears. A spinning metal drill pops out followed by the metal and destruction type dragonoids.

f.u.c.k.

"HANA!" I yell.

The drill turns into a spear and is thrown towards Hana. She looks behind and barely avoids getting skewered. The metal dragonoid charges her while the destruction dragonoid comes to me.

His claws strikes my s.h.i.+eld, scales fly and a large scratch appears on it. I can't take a full hit from those claws, undead corruption is stacking with his destruction magic, scary.

An [Ice Lance] hits him in the chest and I cast a [Earth Bullet] on top of it. He's sent flying back into his hole.

"HUMAAAAAN!" He bellows.

The destruction dragonoid is pinned to the wall deep into the tunnel.

Hana abandons the front line and charges the metal dragonoid, who's generating a new spear on his hand. The earth elemental walks forward and holds the dragonoids as their claws rip it to shreds. Hana casts [Earth Bullet] into the spear shoulder of the dragonoid, having his strike veer off course and allowing her to pierce his throat with her spear.

I cast [Earth Wall] twice and close again the tunnel. My head explodes in pain, overuse.

"[EXPLOSION]!"

The destruction dragonoid has his body turn into very small giblets as the tunnel trembles with her spell.

Hana pushes the metal dragonoid into the wall and pins her spear into the stone. This is an incredibly sharp spear.

I cast [Entangling Vines] in the metal dragonoid, he gets bound to the wall. Hana struggles for a second but she manages to pull out the spear.

"RUN!" I yell.

I throw an Escape Bomb behind us. It shouldn't make them run but it should at least annoy the s.h.i.+t out of them and slow down their advance for a moment longer.

The tunnel is quite long, we have lots of room for another ambush. I drink an MP potion and pray my overuse doesn't stack too much. We all drink an HP potion, the corruption of the undead already took a few points from us, it's doing more damage than the elixir can heal.

I get a whiff of the Escape Bomb and my stomach churns. That thing smells like what I believe rotten goblin a.s.s sweat would smell like, it provokes an instinctual need to puke.

The earth elemental is killed, I stop and cast a small [Earth Wall] and narrow down the tunnel. [Earth Wall] is easier to destroy than a normal wall, so I make it seem similar to the tunnel stone, this way they might not realize it's a spell.

Hana switches her spear for her sword. We wait a good 10 minutes, they are taking their time regenerating.

I hear the sounds of claws. .h.i.tting stone. It grows louder and louder.

The first ones to come are two dragonoids glowing green.

"[FIRESTORM]!"

They burn greatly before the fire dragonoids can interrupt the storm. I see Roxanne grimace and lean on her staff, she's suffering from overuse too. Hana hacks at the burned wind dragonoids and decapitate them, immediately their bodies start to slowly reconstruct.

The next one that comes forward is the metal dragonoid, his body is covered in metal and he looks like the Silver Surfer. Hana fires her breath while me, Roxanne, and Aoi chucks fireb.a.l.l.s. Aoi seems to be unloading all of her power on this attack.

The dragonoid tries to move forward but it is using all its power and concentration to keep his metal from burning him.

The moment Hana's fire breath runs out I pounce forward and slash at the dragonoid. He's slightly burned and receives a large gash on his chest, he staggers backwards and Hana decapitates him. The wind dragonoids are also partially burned by the fire and get their revival delayed.

The next to come are the fire dragonoids, they come full force trying to overpower Hana.

"[Water Wall]!"

Both are caught into the wall and struggle to get out, their mana refuses to leave their bodies. Roxanne holds her head in pain, her breath is ragged.

Hana slashes at the water and it turns red with blood. Suddenly it dies out, Roxanne didn't dispell it, the destruction dragonoid came.

"You shall pay for this!" The white dragonoid yells.

He flies towards us. I feel a lot of mana coming from him, his claws pierce Hana's s.h.i.+eld and vambraces, it enters her arm. I believe this is enough to poison her, we have to get back to Ciel.

I cast another [Earth Wall] and my head spins.

The dragonoid is squished into the wall, allowing Hana to get herself free from its claws and to slash his arm off. She grimaces in pain and she's one who's used to dealing with pain.

I slash at the legs of the dragonoid, I cut a foot off. Aoi chucks fireb.a.l.l.s at the easy target, his eyes get burned.

"Resistance is futile, you will serve me!" The dragonoid yells.

"Run!" I yell.

"I WILL FIND YOOOOO-...!" He screams, his voice booms and reverberates. Then Aoi chucks more fireb.a.l.l.s and his scream is cut off.

This time we don't stop, the fear of that voice gives us a final boost in speed, but my lungs burns so much I'm getting out of breath. Roxanne is the one who stops first.

"I'm sorry... I can't... run... anymore," she nearly whispers.

"It's okay…"

Hana's arm is necrotic, half her forearm is blackened and she's sweating cold, this is the danger of the undead. We get another minute to rest and the ring turns green.

"That's our cue."

I open the [Gate].

"Gih!"

Gify says a quick goodbye and pops out of existence, our connection wears off and I suddenly feel much more tired.

"Thanks, Gify."

We enter the wet cave, it's quite dusty here and there's mana in the air. I look around and see the corpse of a dragonoid, an arrow pierced one of his his eyes. His glow is no more but I can a.s.sume it was a wind-type.

"Hana, I don't think we have time to lower down through the scaffold," I say.

"What are you planning?"

"Hold us and use your winds to keep us from hitting the walls. I will dismiss the elementals and use the last burst of mana on [Telekinesis] to keep us from splatting on the ground."

Hana laughs and sighs.

"Fine," she says.

Aoi curls herself on Hana. Hana grabs Roxanne with one hand and holds me with the weakened arm. Roxanne looks pale.

"Hana... I love you," Roxanne says.

"I love you too," Hana smiles and gives her a peck on the lips, "But we are not gonna die, at worst we will get broken legs."

Roxanne grimaces and her legs shake. I dismiss the elementals and the pulley the earth elemental in front of us is holding falls down.

"I love both of you and we are not going to die, not until old age," I say.

"Kweh!"

She loves us all.

Hana jumps without another word and I regret everything.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Roxanne shrieks.

Hana's wings wrap around us. Aoi seems to be laughing inside her mind, the feeling of flight something she desires greatly. We sway around and Hana's wings sc.r.a.pe on the walls. I feel my body turns cold as the light below us rapidly approaches.

I wished I paid more attention to the physics of Kerbal s.p.a.ce Program, perhaps they could help in calculating the optimal distance for the landing burn.

I let my regrets behind and focus on gathering all my mana, no time to be conservative. I cast [Telekinesis] on me and Hana. I feel the deceleration and get nauseous, my consciousness nearly slips away.

We are too fast, the wind enchantments is making things harder, I have to use it all. My head explodes, my vision and hearing goes away, I only guide myself by the feeling of the wind.

My mana drains like water. Even through blindness I can still see my menu until my mana dips to minus 100, then I blackout.