William will be coming back today and I am actually looking forward to it. His knowledge of magic is invaluable and he has offered to share it freely. Finally having weapons training for Igneous and Marble is also an excellent opportunity, it will be good to be able to put our growing arsenal of guns to use. When he arrives, he is accompanied by Cassandra and four other humans that I am not looking forward to seeing quite as much, but I did give them permission to be here so I will not complain.

William is carrying a duffle bag and they are each wearing a backpack. According to the imps on watch, they came on foot today, rather than by car. I know it is a long way to walk so they are probably carrying provisions.

Welcome back.

“Thanks for having us,” William replies cheerfully.

I see that you were able to join us today as well Cassandra.

“Yes, well, when I mentioned it to my boss, they were actually insistent on it,” she responds.

Is that so? Why is that?

“Well, If we’re going to be teaching your imps magic, it’s an opportunity to see what they’re capable of and that’s something the D.I.D is quite interested in. There are also some other things they have been pestering me to ask about,” Cassandra explains.

That is unfortunately an inevitable consequence of asking them to teach us, it will reveal to them exactly how much we do or do not already know. There is not a lot I can do to limit that without negatively impacting the quality of the training we receive.

“Thank you for letting us come back as well,” Jenna interjects

She is standing next to the couch fidgeting nervously, or perhaps with excitement, I am not sure. Mark and Seth have seated themselves on the couch and Johnathan is leaning against the table. The three males have brought their usual weapons along, but Mark also has what appears to be a crude wooden sword, which he has leaned against the couch beside him with his machete.

Yes, well…welcome back, I suppose.

“We would have come back sooner, but Mark got pretty sick after last time,” she says.

So I heard. I apologize for that. I did not consider the possibility of an infection from being bitten. If you agree to spar with them again, I will ensure they know that they are not to bite.

I include Mark in the conversation now since he is the one who deserves the apology.

“It’s alright, it wasn’t too bad. Well, I mean, it sucked of course, I heard it was actually pretty serious for a while, but some people from the D.I.D showed up and offered me top notch medical care as long as I let them study me. I wouldn’t mind having a rematch against the one that bit me though, I even brought a suitable weapon this time,” he says, grabbing his wooden sword and holding it up to show it off.

While Coal probably caught him off guard last time with his teleportation, I doubt this human would fare any better if he tried to fight him again, even if he knows what to expect and has a weapon this time. If they do spar with the imps again, I will try to discourage him from challenging Coal.

You studied him? I direct this question to Cassandra.

“Not me personally, but yes. The D.I.D’s job is to gather whatever information we can about demons, so when it was reported that he’d been bitten by an imp, I was asked to keep an eye on him. After his parents brought him to the hospital because of an infection they believed was caused by that bite, the D.I.D took an interest. It was important to know if the imps carried any dangerous diseases or parasites that could affect humans that we weren’t already aware of and if they could be contagious.

“So they kept him in quarantine, ran some tests, took some blood samples and provided the best medical care possible,” Cassandra explains.

“‘Some blood samples’, she says. They took so much of my blood I thought I might run out,” Mark jokes.

“According to what I was told, they did find an unknown bacteria in his bloodstream. It didn’t become airborne, but could still theoretically have spread through blood contact,” Cassandra continues.

“Doctors said they were pretty resilient and took some strong antibiotics, but they got’em in the end,” Mark adds, leaning back onto the couch.

That sounds like quite a big deal, yet you seem rather nonchalant about it.

“Well, you know, shit happens I guess. Besides, while I was recovering, it gave me some time to…self reflect, I suppose. Maybe I can accept that I was being a bit of a dick. Not saying I deserved what I got, but I’m not planning to hold it against you,” he states.

“Wow, I’m shocked. That’s probably the first time in your life you’ve ever admitted to being a dick. It’s like you’ve finally taken the first step to becoming a decent human being,” Jenna quips.

“It's still one step further than you’ve ever taken,” Mark counters and Jenna pokes her tongue out at him.

These two bicker a lot more than other humans I have observed, yet they do not seem to dislike each other. It makes me a little curious about their relationship.

“What happened to Mark is what prompted one of the things that my organisation has been pestering me to ask about, or at least it made them more insistent about it,” Cassandra remarks.

And what is it that they want?

“They want to know if you would be willing to provide blood and saliva samples from your imps and other creatures for study.”

Absolutely not.

Cassandra sighs and shakes her head

“That’s pretty much what I expected. That’s why I didn’t bother asking before now, but their requests for me to do so have been getting more incessant, so I figured I might as well get it over with and have your official refusal on record, at least,” she complains.

I understand the reasoning for wanting samples, you want to know if they might be carrying any other potential contagions. But I have no way of being sure that whoever gets those samples will not also have other, more sinister intentions.

Apart from the possibility of the humans experimenting with the blood to try to find poisons or diseases that are effective against imps, I also know from my own experiments with summoning that even magic can interact with blood. So I really have no idea what could be possible for someone who is determined to find a way to cause harm.

“I understand. I’ll not push the issue, though I'm sure the D.I.D won’t just stop asking that easily. Aside from acquiring physical samples, they’re also just interested in any and all information you are willing to give them about yourself, the imps and other creatures you’ve got here. After my last report where I mentioned the child imp was riding one of the hellhounds, there was particular interest raised about the relationship between the two species,” Cassandra continues.

I will consider what I am willing to share, but please tell them not to get their hopes up too high.

“Hellhounds? Those are the large furred creatures with the spikes and fiery eyes, I assume?” Jonathan inquires.

“That’s what Magentam calls them. Fitting, right?” William confirms.

“And the child was riding one of them? Really?” Jenna exclaims. “I really want to see that. Is it adorable?” She asks

“Didn’t you bring a gift for it?” Mark interjects.

“Oh, that’s right,” she quickly takes off her backpack and opens it to retrieve a small, white cardboard box.

A gift? For what reason?

“I’m pretty sure I scared the poor thing last time I was here, so I brought this as an apology,” she clarifies regretfully.

I am sure she will appreciate whatever it is. Would you like to give it to her yourself?

“Is that okay? She won’t be scared again?” She asks hesitantly.

If she is expecting you and you are not charging towards her without warning, it will be fine. She is actually quite brave.

“Well, if we’re giving out gifts, I’ve got some stuff here to hand out as well,” William chimes in.

He places the duffle bag on the table and opens it. The first thing he takes out is a black box with a few cables attached to it. Two of the cables have clamps on the end, one red and one black.

“With this, we can recharge the car battery. It just plugs into your generator, but it means we’ll have to either take the generator to the car, or bring the battery back here. Kind of inconvenient either way, but we’ll deal with that later,” he begins.

Next he pulls out three pairs of pants, two that are black and appear to be about the same size and one purple that is a bit bigger.

“You brought them pants?” Seth questions, watching on in curiosity.

“Not just any pants, these ones have been specially modified to accommodate their tails,” William brags, showing off their design.

“Oh, that’s pretty neat,” Jenna remarks.

“We’ve only got them in two sizes since Rose and Coal’s measurements are close enough that the same size should work for both of them and they have elastic in the waistband so a little variance won’t matter. Only Violet’s measurements were different enough to actually need a larger size,” he explains, holding the purple pants and one of the black pairs side by side to compare them.

Was it intentional that the ones you brought for Violet happen to be purple or just a coincidence?

“Well, it wasn’t planned ahead of time, but when you see an opportunity like that, you gotta take it,” William insists.

I see…Well, I am sure she will like them. What else have you brought?

“Backpacks, modified as you suggested,” William cheers, extracting three small packs from the duffle bag, one green, one blue and one pink. “We were only able to get three done in time for today though.”

I suppose I should call them down again so they can try them on then.

“Excellent, after that, we can move on to today’s main objective,” William says enthusiastically.

“Oh, what’s that? Your main objective, I mean,” Jenna queries.

You did not tell them?

“They didn’t ask. I just told them that I had business with you today and they were welcome to join me,” William remarks. “My actual purpose here today is to offer firearms and combat magic training,” he explains to the other four humans.

Mark and Seth perk up at the mention of firearms and Jenna’s eyes light up when he talks about combat magic, but it is Johnathan who speaks first.

“You intend to teach the imps about guns? Would they even be able to use them?” He asks, raising an eyebrow.

“It’s not for the imps, no,” William replies.

“Surely you’re not trying to teach the hellhounds, right?” Jenna questions incredulously, making William chuckle.

“As amusing as I’m sure that would be, no, it’s not for them either. I take it none of you have met Igneous then?”

“I don’t think so. Why? What is it? Some kind of rock monster?” Jenna asks.

“No, at least I don’t think so,” William begins, and looks at Cassandra with a raised eyebrow. “What do you think?”

“I’ve not seen anything to indicate that he is a ‘rock monster’ of any sort, though having a name like ‘Igneous’ certainly does raise some questions,” she replies.

“Magentam, care to comment?” William prompts.

No.

“Well, there you have it. Anyway, in actuality, Igneous is more like a… You know what, maybe I’ll let you see for yourself, wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise,” William says, chuckling to himself.

“That’s not ominous at all,” Mark responds sarcastically.

While the humans talk amongst themselves, I call Rose Violet and Coal down to try on the things that William brought. When they enter the room, Rose, as usual, glares at the humans, especially Jenna and her friends. Coal, on the other hand, grins when he sees Mark on the couch, a wide, malicious grin, showing off all his teeth, even snapping his jaws once.

“I’ll get you back for that, don’t you worry,” Mark grumbles, though I sincerely doubt that he will.

“We haven’t seen that one before. Is she new? She’s cute,” Jenna says, smiling at Rose.

You have seen her before. This is Rose.

I had forgotten that the last time these humans were here was before Rose became a guardian, so this is their first time seeing her with her now multi-coloured skin, not that it matters.

“Oh, well the new colouration looks really pretty,” Jenna compliments.

If Rose understands what was said, she does not give any indication of it. Meanwhile, Violet walks straight over to William and looks up at him expectantly.

“Here you go,” he says as he hands her the purple shorts.

Violet takes the pants and holds them against her arm, comparing it to her skin. The colour was a little lighter, but not too far off

“It’s just like me!” She cheers with a wide smile and rushes off to the bedroom to change.

She returns soon after, skipping into the room wearing the new pants.

How are they?

“I like them,” she declares.

“But how’s it fit with the tail?” Rose asks

Violet twists her body to try to look at the base of her tail.

“It’s good, I think. Better than the last one,” she confirms. She sways her tail from side to side to test it. “It’s comfortable and not too tight.”

“I suppose we should try them as well then,” Rose says and retrieves the other two pairs of shorts from William and hands one to Coal.

The two of them also leave the room to change and when they come back Violet is already wearing the pink backpack.

“I took the pink one,” she says and holds the other two out for the smaller imps.

Coal reaches for the blue one without hesitation.

“I guess I’m taking the green one then.” Rose takes the green backpack and puts it on.

Once the clip in the middle across the chest is secured, she tugs on the shoulder straps, noting that there is still some give to it, but not too much. She twists her body to the left and right a few times and then bends forward to test how it restricts her range of motion and seems satisfied with the result.

“They look so cute with their little backpacks, I wish I had a camera so I could take pictures,” Jenna coos as she watches.

“Even if you had one, I wouldn’t count on Magentam actually allowing you to take any pictures,” William remarks. “So what's the verdict? Good? Bad? Needing any further adjustments?”

I relay the question and Violet grins.

“I think they’re great,” she announces, holding out a hand with her thumb pointed up.

“Great.” Coal copies her again, as he often does.

“They do seem to be suitable. The pants are decently comfortable and the backpacks will definitely be useful,” Rose confirms.

“Perfect. I’m glad they meet your approval. We’ll work on getting more soon,” William says.

That will be appreciated. Shall we move on then?

“Sure, should we start with the guns?” William agrees.

Mark and Seth whisper to each other briefly on the couch before Mark speaks up.

“We’d also like to learn about them, if you don’t mind teaching us as well, I mean,” he requests.

“Well, I guess I don’t have a problem with that. Magentam?”

Fine, but I am not sharing any ammunition for them to practice with.

“We might want to move to a bigger room, if possible. With Igneous and Marble, assuming they’re both the same size, it’s going to get a bit cramped in here,” William suggests.

The rooms in the next floor up are larger, I suppose we can use Room 1 there. I offer after checking that the imps who live in that room are not there right now.

While the humans make their way up the stairs, I ask Igneous and Marble to fetch some guns from the storage room and wait for the humans to join them. Igneous brings in an assault rifle and a pistol while Marble has one of the shotguns. In Room 1, they place the guns on the table and then both crouch down by the far wall.

Stolen story; please report.

Rose is the first to enter, so she can continue to keep an eye on the humans, as she often does. Even though she took a detour to the storage room to deposit the backpack, she still made it back to the room where the gargoyles were waiting well before the humans. Coal and Violet have instead elected to run around the dungeon to show off the backpacks and their new pants to everyone they can find, though I imagine it was probably Violet’s idea and Coal is just following along.

When William arrives, the first thing he sees is the two gargoyles staring at him from across the room. He nods to them and continues over to the table, followed by the others. Cassandra does not react to them but the others are quite startled when they see the two large creatures watching them enter.

“Holy shit. What are those?” Mark exclaims.

“That’s Igneous and Marble, the ones I’m here to teach,” William responds. “This one is Igneous…I think,” he says with uncertainty, pointing to the darker skinned gargoyle.

That is correct.

“Good. That means you’re Marble. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Marble stares at him for a moment before nodding, but does not show any further reaction.

“I hope you don’t mind that we have some extra people joining us that also want to learn?” William asks.

Marble turns her head to look at Igneous and the two of them confer briefly until Igneous nods.

“Excellent, let’s get started then shall we?” William announces and approaches the table.

Mark, Seth and the two gargoyles also move towards the table, while the other three humans hang back.

“Looks like the same gear the army uses. I guess the Honey Badgers probably have the same supplier, not that there’s many other options,” William remarks.

Would that supplier be Frank Walters? You mentioned in the past that he is a weapons manufacturer.

“Yeah, Walters Munitions. Pretty much the only weapons company left in the country these days. I’m sure they would never admit publicly to doing business with groups like the Honey Badgers, but considering how well equipped they always seem to be, it’s hard to imagine any other explanation,” William confirms.

“So, before I let you handle them, the first thing we need to go over is firearm safety. The first rule of firearm safety is to always be aware of the direction the barrel is pointed. Never point it at someone that you don’t want to shoot. I’ve seen people get shot because some idiot was waving his gun around like a moron, because he thought it wasn’t loaded, only to discover that it was, in fact, loaded,” William begins.

“Which leads into the second rule. ALWAYS assume that the weapon is loaded. Even when you think it’s not, even if you removed the magazine yourself, it doesn’t matter, treat the weapon like it’s loaded at all times. You don’t want to be the dumbass who accidentally shoots your friend because you didn’t realise that there was still one bullet left in the chamber.”

William spends some time lecturing his students about gun safety ensuring everyone understands all the rules before even touching any of the guns on the table. Once he is satisfied, he picks up the assault rifle and starts explaining each of its components while also dismantling the weapon, one piece at a time.

Once he has completely taken it apart, he reassembles it while also explaining proper cleaning and maintenance, though we do not have the tools here to demonstrate that. Once it is fully reassembled, though leaving the magazine separate, he places it to the side, picks up the shotgun and begins the same process.

As I am watching, I am struck with the startling realisation that I already know all of this. It does not make sense, but the more I listen, the more I am sure of it; I know how these guns work. Even though he has not started on the pistol yet, if I think about it, I can picture how to take it apart and put it back together, how to load it and what kind of ammo it uses.

It has always been a mystery to me how I possess the knowledge that I have, but I am certain that I did not know all this before. When I first acquired these guns from the original group of Honey Badgers that attacked us, I tried to figure them out, hoping the knowledge would just come to me as it usually does. But that did not happen and all I knew about them was what I had already seen, which mostly amounted to pointing the barrel at the intended target and pulling the trigger.

I did not want anyone here trying to use them with such limited instruction, that is why I decided to ask William for help. I did not give them much thought after that, but it would seem that at some point between then and now, I have gained additional knowledge without even being consciously aware of it. The question is when and how? Yet another mystery to ponder.

I focus back in on the lesson as William is showing them how to unload and reload the weapons, how to safely check if there is a round chambered and how to remove it if there is. All three weapons were loaded at the start, though the assault rifle only had a partially full magazine, so he had ammunition on hand to use for these demonstrations.

He then unloads all three guns and ensures their chambers are clear so he can teach everyone how to properly hold each of the firearms, both while aiming and at rest. He reiterates the rules about gun safety and has them aiming at a wall that does not have another room or hallway on the other side.

Even Rose participates, attempting to hold the pistol. It is awkward for her due to its size, but she does manage to hold it steady at least. Though I am not sure if her grip would handle the recoil of actually firing.

Jenna, on the other hand, chooses to sit out of this activity. Instead just standing back with Cassandra and watching the others practice.

Not interested in guns? I ask her.

“Not really. They’re not exactly easily accessible for the average citizen. Unless I go into the army or law enforcement, which I suppose I could do pretty easily if I wanted, since mages are always in high demand in those fields, but I don’t really want to, to be honest, so I’d be better off honing my magic instead of worrying about guns,” she replies.

That does sound reasonable. Better to rely on something you know you will always have access to over something that may be scarce.

“That’s just what I thought. Glad I’m not the only one who sees it that way,” she says with a bright smile.

“Have you considered the D.I.D as a possible career path? We also value mages quite highly,” Cassandra suggests.

“Well, I don’t really know much about what the D.I.D actually does,” Jenna responds.

“Demonic Intelligence Division. As I mentioned before, our job is to gather information on demons, there are a variety of different ways we accomplish this task and those who go out into the field are provided with a side-arm and taught how to use it,” Cassandra explains, gesturing to the pistol holstered on her side. “If you’re interested and meet the entry criteria, I’d be willing to recommend you,” she offers.

“Really? Obviously I haven’t thought much about the D.I.D, but why me?” Jenna queries.

“Based on what I’ve seen from the reports, as well as my own observations of how you interact with Magentam and the imps I think you’d be a good fit. You’re curious, but still cautious, most of the time, and you don’t let established biases against demons lead you to making assumptions. Good traits to have for someone working in intelligence. At least, that’s the impression I have of you so far.”

“Thanks, I think. But what about my friends?” Jenna asks.

“That’s hard to say. You would certainly get special consideration on account of being a mage, but it wouldn’t be so easy for them. Jonathan might have a chance, he seems pretty reliable, but I’m not so sure about the other two.”

“I see. That sounds like a lot to consider,” Jenna says thoughtfully as she observes her friends.

“Well, you’re not even eighteen yet, right? So you’ve got plenty of time to think about it. I can give you a number you can contact me on later if you or your parents have any questions,” Cassandra assures her.

“Thank you, I’m sure they will,” Jenna remarks.

Once William is sure that his students know how to hold the guns properly and aren’t going to point them at things they shouldn’t, he directs them to put the guns back on the table.

“If you're willing to spare some ammo to practice with and have an open space for it, we could try some practical training, but otherwise there’s not much else for me to teach,” he declares.

I do not mind Igneous and Marble using some, Rose too if she wants to try, but I am not sparing any for the others. And if you want open space, you can go up to the roof.

I have still only claimed a relatively small area on the roof, so unless they stay within that area, I will not be able to observe them. Although, given that it is not an enclosed space, my vision only extends in a bubble about a meter from the floor, so I wouldn’t be able to see much, besides Rose, even if they did stay within the claimed area; unless they tried to shoot while sitting down, which might be a little silly.

If you need a target to shoot at, you might be able to find something suitable if you search the rooms on the upper floors. I will send someone up with the extra ammunition.

“That's not a bad idea. But first, I gotta ask, does that winding nonsense in the stairs go all the way up to the roof?” William inquires.

No, that stops at this floor.

“We can all be thankful for small mercies,” William says with a sigh of relief. “Alright we’re heading up to the roof for some actual shooting practice now,” he announces.

“Sweet, we finally get to shoot stuff,” Mark cheers.

“Not you though. I mean, sorry, you can come watch, but only Igneous, Marble and Rose will be shooting,” William corrects him.

“Wow, stingy,” Mark complains.

“Keep in mind, they literally had to kill people to get this stuff, people who were trying to kill them, so they probably don’t have an abundant stockpile of ammunition to share,” William chides.

“Alright, fine. I guess that’s fair,” Mark admits, shoulders slumped in disappointment.

I ask Violet to fetch the necessary ammo boxes and take them up to the roof. She arrives at the storage room with Coal, River and Aster in tow, though I am not sure if she actually asked them to follow her so they could help or if they just came along because they could.

Violet is still wearing the pink backpack, although Coal appears to have discarded the one he had somewhere. I direct them to the cabinet where the ammunition was stored and instruct them to check the contents of each box carefully to ensure to get one of each type with no double ups. At first I expected Violet to hand off two of the boxes to the others so she can just carry one up, but instead she decides that this is a perfect opportunity to test the new backpack.

She takes off the pack and opens it up to place the three boxes inside. Each box is small enough that she can fit all three in without too much difficulty. She zips the bag closed and puts it back on. After securing the central clip, she twists her body around from side to side and then jumps in place, testing how the backpack feels now that it's actually carrying something.

“It’s good,” she declares with a nod of satisfaction.

Having collected the requested items, she rushes out of the room at top speed to make her delivery, the other three imps trailing behind her, doing their best to keep up.

Most of the humans are heading upstairs, but Jenna and Cassandra have remained behind. I turn my attention to the two of them and see Jenna once again holding the white box that she said was a gift for my littlest imp.

You two are not going up? Do you need something?

“Did you not hear what I asked just now?” Jenna asks, looking confused.

I apologise. My attention was directed elsewhere. Could you repeat it?

“Oh, well, while the others are up there shooting, I wondered if this would be a good time to offer the little imp her gift?” she requests.

It is as good a time as any I suppose. If you wait in the hallway, I will let her know you want to give her something. It will be up to her whether she actually wants to come out to see you though.

And what will you do? I ask Cassandra.

“I will simply observe,” she replies.

Of course you will.

Calla is currently in her parent's room sitting on the bed, humming to herself while her mother brushes her hair with a hairbrush that they found at some point. Calyx is nearby attempting to stack cups in a triangle. He has started collecting plastic cups recently, when he finds them, but since the cups he has acquired are not all the same shape or size, they do not form a stable structure.

I feel it would be better to inform her parents of the situation first instead of telling Calla directly as I fear she might just run out immediately, without a second thought, which may irritate Lily and Calyx.

There is a human here who has a gift for Calla and wishes to present it to her.

“What kind of gift?” Lily asks, pausing in the brushing of her daughter’s hair.

Cally turns around and looks up at her mother when she stops brushing.

“Gift? What gift?” She asks.

I do not know what the gift is. It is a surprise I suppose.

“Dangerous?” Calyx queries, looking over from his unsteady stack of cups.

I am sure it is nothing dangerous and neither is the human. I assure them.

“Who gift for?” Calla demands while pulling on her mother’s arm, dissatisfied at being ignored.

“It’s a gift for you, a human bring,” Lily answers after a brief moment of hesitation.

“Where?” Calla implores, continuing to pull on Lily’s arm.

The human with the gift is out in the hallway.

“Let’s go!” Calla insists, leaping off the bed towards the door.

Once out of the bedroom, I expect her to run straight out into the hallway, but instead she rushes over to Noctis, who is on the far side of the room, grooming herself.

“Humans here. Have gift. We go,” Calla says to the hellhound.

Noctis pauses her grooming to look towards the door leading to the hallway, then stands to follow the tiny imp. Of the other three hellhounds lounging around the room, only Fire, Noctis’ mate, stirs to accompany them.

Lily opens the door just enough to peek out into the hallway and Calla squeezes in front of her to also take a look. Jenna notices the door opening slightly and the eyes now peering at her from the gap so she smiles waves at them.

“Only see two. Is there more?” Lily asks.

Not right now, the others went up to the roof.

Lily opens the door all the way to let the hellhounds go first and the imps follow. As they approach the humans, with Calla between the two hellhounds and Lily and Calyx behind, they stop a couple of meters in front of the pair.

“Oh my gosh, just look at her. She’s so tiny and adorable,” Jenna comments. She crouches down and holds the box out in front of her.

“I’m sorry for scaring you the last time. I’ve brought this as an apology,” she says softly, trying to put on the friendliest smile she can.

Calla tilts her head, then turns to her parents.

“What she say?” she asks.

She brought you this gift to say sorry for scaring you the last time she was here.

“I not scared,” she insists.

Calla walks confidently towards the humans, under the watchful gaze of her parents and the hellhounds. When she is close enough, she reaches out and snatches the box from Jenna's hands, then quickly runs back to her parents. When she tries to open it, she instead ends up tearing the top off the cardboard box, revealing the prize inside. A small cupcake with white icing and rainbow sprinkles.

“This food?” She asks.

Yes, it is called a cupcake, similar to the muffins from a few days ago, but smaller.

Calla drops the torn cardboard she was still holding to gently lift the cupcake out of the box before also dropping the box. When she bites into half of the cupcake, her eyes go wide with delight and she quickly shoves the rest of it into her mouth.She then looks down at her now empty hand and sighs.

“All gone,” she laments.

Despite their earlier caution, Lily and Calyx approach Jenna and look up at her expectantly.

“Oh, sorry, I only brought one,” she says.

I translate her words for the imps and the immediate disappointment is clear in their expression as they look down at the ground and walk back over to the hellhounds

“I’m really sorry, I promise I’ll bring more next time,” Jenna announces in an attempt to cheer them up.

“You should be careful about making promises like that, unless you plan to bring enough for all of them,” Cassandra warns with a small chuckle.

“How many is ‘all of them’?” Jenna queries.

There are twenty-one imps currently, though I still intend to summon more. There are also four hellhounds, plus Igneous and Marble.

“That’s a little more than I expected, but I might be able to work something out,” Jenna considers.

Do not worry too much about it. They will get over this disappointment soon enough.

Moving her gaze away from the imp, it instead falls on the hellhounds, silently standing guard. They so far had not moved much since they came out to the hallway, merely watched and waited for a reason or an order to attack.

“You know, if they didn’t have the spikes or the, uh, fire…They’d probably also be kinda cute. Do you think they’d let me pat them?” Jenna ponders.

“You could try, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up and you should be extremely careful about how you approach them,” Cassandra warns.

“Are they aggressive?” Jenna asks.

“I don’t know. They’ve never attacked us in the few times I’ve seen them, but they haven’t been friendly either,” Cassandra replies.

While they are discussing it, I ask Noctis if she would allow the human to touch her. The flames in her eyes flare briefly and she huffs, turning away. She and her mate head back to their room followed by the three imps.

“I guess that’s a no,” Jenna remarks.

“Now that that’s done. Let’s head up and check on the others, unless you’d rather wait down here?” Cassandra suggests.

“Might as well, I guess,” Jenna agrees.

The two of them head up to the roof to join the other humans and I turn my attention to Violet and Coal, who have been wandering around the core room for a while. When I check on them, they each have one of Violet’s brooms in hand and are sweeping. This is something Violet does occasionally so I would not usually pay it much mind, but as I am watching her, I see her flinch occasionally, though I cannot see anything that would be causing such a reaction.

Is something wrong?

“No, it’s just the sound of the guns, I don’t like it,” she says.

That is understandable, given what she went through, it is not too surprising that she is not completely over it. Though I am glad to see that she is doing a lot better than before.

I cannot even hear the gunshots, which is a little surprising, considering how loud they usually are. I move up to the roof to see if that makes a difference and while I can hear them from here, the sound is quite muted compared to what I expected.

I have noted before that sounds coming from outside the dungeon do become muffled and the ones doing the shooting are currently outside my territory, as I expected them to be. But even so, I would not have thought a noise as loud as gunshots would be dulled to this degree.

Now that I think about it, it is a rather strange phenomena. The transmission of sound generally occurs through the vibration of air molecules, so I do not see how the dungeon’s border would interfere with that. Then again, I seem to be the only one affected by this interference. As I have already seen numerous times, none of my creatures have any problems hearing outside noises, so it is just me.

However, If I consider that the body I have that I can move around with is merely a mental projection of my consciousness, that means I technically do not have ears, not physically at least. So perhaps I am not even capable of picking up those vibrations and I actually have an entirely different means of interpreting sound, something that is tied to the dungeon.

This does give me something to ponder while I wait for Igneous, Marble and Rose to finish shooting. When they are eventually done, Rose and the humans return to the room they were previously in while Igneous and Marble take the weapons back to the storage room. Marble is carrying the guns and Igneous has the three ammo boxes, so I guess they did not use them all.

How did they do? I ask William.

“About as good as you can expect from beginners who have never held a gun before. Not too bad overall, although Rose only fired a couple of shots before she gave up,” he reports.

You did not like it? I direct towards Rose.

“No, it’s too hard to hold while firing, I suspect even Violet would have trouble with it. Unless there are much smaller ones available, I don’t think guns are suitable for imps,” she comments.

I assumed that would be the case. Thank you for trying it out at least and confirming my suspicions.

“So do you have any other weapons you’d like me to teach you about or is that all for now?” William inquiries.

There is one more actually.

I instruct Igneous to bring out the box containing the RPG. In the past I refrained from telling William about it because I thought it would be better not to let the humans know that I had something like this, but if I keep it a secret forever, then it will never do anything other than taking up space in the storage room. If we do this, there is at least a chance that it could become useful at some point. Even if we do not use it for defence, if they know that we have it, the humans might offer something of value in trade for it, which would be better than letting it continue to gather dust.

When Igneous comes back to the room carrying the large box, all the humans watch with interest as he brings it in and deposits it on the table.

“What do we have here?” William asks, approaching the box to open it when Igneous steps aside.

Lifting the lid, his mouth falls open as he stares down at its contents.

“What the actual fuck?! Where the hell did you even get this?” He demands.

“Oh cool, a rocket launcher,” Seth declares.

“Awesome, are we gonna get to see some explosions?” Mark adds.

It is something else that the first group of Honey Badgers brought with them. But we only have one shot so we cannot do any practical demonstrations, but I would like you to at least explain how to operate it, if you could.

“Sorry boys, no explosions today it seems,” William tells them and their excitement immediately fades.

“Lame,” Mark complains

William carefully lifts the launcher out of its case and examines it.

“I didn’t get to handle things like this very often, but I did learn how to use them, so I can teach you the basics.”

His explanation is quite detailed, but aside from just the operation of the device, he is also quite insistent about safety procedures, particularly about being aware of your surroundings before you fire to avoid unnecessary collateral. Though they were disappointed that they would not get to see it in action, Mark and Seth are still captivated and paying close attention to every detail, the other humans were less interested though.

When he has finished his explanation, he gently places it back in its box and closes the lid.

“Do you seriously plan to use that thing?” Cassandra asks.

We obviously cannot use it inside, so we may not have many opportunities to do so. I would prefer to not be put in a situation where we would even need it, but you never know what might happen in the future.

“Well, if we’re done with the guns for today, I reckon we should take a break for lunch, what do you guys think? Then after that, I can start sharing my invaluable expertise on magic as well,” William suggests.

“Perhaps it would be better to deal with that car battery before moving on to the magic lessons, just so we don’t have to worry about it later,” Cassandra counters.

“I suppose we could do it that way,” William considers, “Magentam, do you have any thoughts on the matter?”

It makes little difference to me.

“Allright, we’ll do that then.”