“How are you? Is the heart cumbersome or something?” I checked Parilostro’s pulse on his arm, noticing it was beating slower than mine. I never tested my pulse, so I wasn’t sure if mine was beating faster normally or not.

“Good. Good. It’s strong, thank you very much, Princess Hestia.” Parilostro pressed his hand on his chest, smiling fondly at the lifely drumming of life vibrating in his hand.

With [Miraculous Grace], I managed to create a new heart for Parilostro, replacing the undeveloped one he had since he was a toddler. Now suited for an adult beastmen, Parilostro was finally able to experience a normal life with his real body. Unfortunately, he looked feeble and fragile, a consequence of being stuck in a bed for over 20 years.

He was stuck in his chair or bed and required the aide of his servants and retainers to even move to the toilet. His heart still needed time to grow and adapt to his body, after all. It was literally an entirely new organ. Still, from looking at what he was doing on his workbench, it seemed he was still able to act as an artificer.

I stood up after checking his health and looked around. “Your puppets aren’t around anymore?”

“The control unit was that chest piece and without the heart, and for some reason, I cannot feel my demonkin blood anymore. I believe you cleanse it when you operated on my heart, so I cannot use my sloth ability anymore. They were the first thing I had to dismantle, the moment I woke up.” Parilostro admitted to removing evidence from his time as a sloth contractor. As sly as it was, it was necessary now since Reajaen was Estralia’s president.

“Lady Hestia…” I turned my head around when Parilostro’s voice eked out my name. “I know what I am about to ask may sound rude to all you’ve—”

“Stop.” But before he could finish his sentence, Reajaen came over and placed a hand on his shoulder. Her frown contorted her face slightly. “We’ve talked about this. Don’t annoy her.”

“Mother… I know, but this is still unfair. You did all of this because of me! Every crime you did, you did it for me. You shouldn’t be punished for something like this!” Parilostro grabbed his Mother’s hand as tears began to drip from his eyes. Reajaen hugged him and called over one of her gang members, bringing the weeping Parilostro out of the room.

“I apologize. I know he sounds selfish, but—” Reajaen tried to find an excuse for her son, but I could already imagine what it is.

“I understand. Don’t worry about it.” I couldn’t and wouldn’t fault Parilostro for what is happening.

The young Resclave was born with a frail body where if it wasn’t for the Prince of Sloth, he would have died. He had a heart that pumped demonkin blood through him, but after I operated on him and gave him a new heart, he mentioned he was back to normal. I did drain a ton of his blood and even used my white flames on him, so probably did cleanse a ton of it away. I even played [The Heir of Hope] during the whole operation, so it made my white flames even more of a counter to anything demonic.

However, before all of this, his mother committed countless sins and crimes just to keep her son alive. She killed people in cold blood as the leader of the Resurrection, she toppled organizations through illegal means to become a senator in Gleisvale, and she was the one who hired the fae hunters who killed Tasianna’s previous mistress, Princess Schuri.

She only hinted at these facts during our accord, but after the battle was over, I received a full explanation from Reajaen herself. She admitted to every single crime, and it wasn’t a small list. In my opinion, she wasn’t irredeemable, since she did all of this for her son and to kill O’Bloom, but she needed to see justice. She wasn’t fully evil, but she wasn’t anywhere close to innocent.

“Don’t worry, Tasianna. I already explained everything to Parilostro. I won’t run away. The moment I can hand everything over to him, I will accompany you to Saelariel.” Reajaen reassured Tasianna, not smiling.

“Take your time. Lady Hestia does not have the time to go there yet.,” Tasianna replied in an icy tone, glaring at Reajaen with daggers. Even if Tasianna could feel sympathy for Parilostro, she couldn’t for the mother. “Lady Hestia, please, after the summit.”

I nodded. That was Tasianna asking me for a favor. After the summit between the dwarves and Artorias, if nothing terrible happens, we would visit Saelariel. Not only for Reajaen’s trial, but I could guess the elves would like to invite me over. The dragonewts probably would too, but my obligation was also to make sure the elves would support Artorias.

Until then, Reajaen would serve me. The Resurrection and Layavete cartel were under my authority, and ‘cause of that, I forbade them from doing anything morally black at this point. Shaturein was working with them to control Estralia in the shadows, but I wasn’t allowing them to do any cold-blood killings or torture in my name.

I was a killer myself, but there was a difference between hunting for survival and self-defense, and killing an innocent bystander. Although, I had little to no sympathy for criminals. That was why I killed that poison dude after I disarmed him. If you treated other’s lives with as much respect as the ground you walked on, then I had nothing to feel guilty for.

“Is this woman a criminal?” Suddenly, from behind me, somebody spoke to us so I turned around. It was Renee and she was holding her hand on one of her swords.

“This is my business,” I plainly stated and Renee shrugged, accepting it. “Anyways, Reajaen, we need to use your alchemy apparatuses and so on. Tasianna, can you and Rita lead?”

“Of course.” Tasianna nodded before looking over at Rita, only to find her watching the potted plants in the corner. Tasianna sighed and went over to the dryad, forcibly pulling her over.

After she settled down and refocused, Rita pointed at the satchel Shay was holding for me. He nodded and opened it up, placing the different ingredients on the alchemy table.

“Ooooh! Incredible!” Rita grabbed the herbs and other ingredients we needed, inspecting them with wonder, before her grin went downwards. “T-This— Where did you get all of these?! They are saturated with mana, as if they were grown right inside a monster-infested area! T-They aren’t perfect in quality, but from their mana alone, these will produce potent potions.”

I believe Tasianna’s green thumb and my mana helped our garden grow extremely fast. Even Reajaen, a master alchemist, commented how our Belzac herbs were top quality. I wondered what Rita meant with how they weren’t perfect, and it seemed Tasianna did too.

“I grew them. Is there a way to improve on them?” She didn’t feel insulted at all, in fact, it seemed she accepted the fact our garden products weren't the best just yet.

“Oh really, oh! Could you show me your garden?! Please, I want to inspect the status of the plants and then I will give an answer, although if you want a reply now, then it probably would be more quality fertilizer.” Rita was pestering Tasianna like crazy, letting her scholarly side show too much. Neill had to rip her away from Tasianna, giving her loud lecture in the corner like a small child.

Ehehe…

In any case, once she calmed down, Tasianna asked Reajaen for help, citing she wasn’t too aware of Reajaen’s instruments and tools. Although, I personally believed Tasianna just wanted to learn from Reajaen. Regardless of her past and the tension between them, she was the guild master of the alchemist guild, and Tasianna was mature enough to look past that just to better herself.

Reajaen probably understood that, too, so she didn’t argue back and instead began her tour. “80 percent purified fairnite beakers, able to trap 73 percent of the mana from the ingredients. This is something Parilostro made, a rotational mortar. Activate it like any other manatech, and it will grind whatever you need automatically. If you need to make adjustments, do it afterwards.”

Reajaen’s lab was a mix between conventional alchemist tools and manatech her son had made to accelerate her work. There was a manatech drainer specifically designed to extract mana from herbs as efficiently as possible, long-winded pipes connected from one beaker to the other to further purify potions, and also a miniature mana barrier to protect yourself from accidents. This place was fully kitted out.

“We need to boil the brew over a hot flame. We need a vial able to endure extreme flames,” Tasianna stated after checking the beakers and vials.

“How hot?” Reajaen asked, but she immediately twitched, frowning just seconds before Tasianna answered.

“Strong enough to handle Lady Hestia’s flames.”

“…” Reajaen just stared at Tasianna, showing befuddlement and also vexation at what she requested. After blinking her one eye about ten times and Rita waving at her, Reajaen shook her head slightly and went over to a safe hidden in a cupboard. There, she pulled out two black glass beakers.

After setting it up on the table, including a stand and a mana barrier to protect everything from the flame, Reajaen began her explanation while massaging her temples. “Voldunna obsidian glass. Very, very fragile and hard to work with, since it’s impossible to look through its black exterior. You can throw this into a volcano and it will survive the heat, but smack it slightly with a hammer, and it will show a crack.”

“Hmm, if it can survive magma, then it should be what we need,” Rita accepted.

Tasianna nodded, too. “We don’t need it to get hotter, so this should be okay. Alright, let’s begin.”

The trio then began the alchemical process while the rest of us stayed on the side, sitting and watching them work. Rita and Reajaen began discussing the recipe, double-checking the process for the resulting herbal drainer. Tasianna, on the other hand, began separating the different ingredients, especially the dwarven whiskey, into bottles and vials.

Reajaen, noticing the whiff of the alcohol, dipped her fingertips into it, tasting it for a moment before flinching back, shaking her head as she was overwhelmed by it. Giving it a thumbs up, Tasianna smiled for a moment, proud of the hard liquor she and Grimnir have been making all this time.

“Hellscream mandragora is quite the rare specimen. I’ve seen an Aleistunum alchemist prepare a swampborn mandragora, and he told me the best way to do so for high-quality ones was to dip it into water and boil it for around a bell. This is to extract some of the mana beforehand, to prevent it from overwhelming the final product,” Reajaen informed the two other.

Tasianna nodded, documenting the tip onto a wooden slate with some charcoal. “Sounds good, that means we can use that as a base. However, we need a high flame to do so, so we need to add some alcohol into the mix. The last thing we can afford is to burn the poor root.”

“Mhmm.” Rita scribbled everything that was said into her journal, before adding her opinion on the matter. “I used [Investigate] on the mandragora. It has a high boiling point with all the mana inside it, however, if I could give a guess — about three spoons of the whiskey and seven spoons of pure water. Miss Tasianna, you’re a water mage, right?”

“Sure, I'll do it.”

The more they spoke, the longer time seemed to last as I couldn’t find myself extremely invested into it. Alchemy wasn’t boring, that’s for sure. I am a toxicologist, in a way, so I did find mixing around stuff for new concoctions extremely fun, but due to my [Corrosive Fire], my process was different. I just needed to ingest them and my body would remember the toxin, for example, I could recreate the venom the poison dude used to hold everybody hostage.

“… This is boring.” Neill finally stated, which Mother seemed to agree with as she went back to sleep. “If we’re gonna wait, then I can do some training. No idea who our tournament opponents will be, so we better make sure we’re fit.”

“True… but I cannot just leave now, Fargryneill. This is an important process towards my goal,” Renee protested, but I had to agree with Sis here.

“How about we eat? Outside of the bread and dry meat we ate during lunch, we haven’t eaten a proper meal, right?” I suggested and Neill smiled, seemingly understanding what I meant.

She grabbed Renee’s arm and pulled the knight up, prompting Shay and Beth to lick their lips and stand up, also. Rajah, too, peeked out from my shadow, looking at me with his big, white eyes. It seemed everybody was hungry.

“Alright, Tasianna, if you need me, come into the portal, alright?” I called over to her before opening a [Room] portal. After we entered it, I noticed the students and Ellaine weren’t at the table anymore, but from how Svena and the others were cleaning up, I presumed they just finished.

Jeez, how long did we listen to them talk?

“Oh, Lady Hestia, that was quick. I thought you would spend more time on the alchemical concoction?” Svena stated the moment I went over to the table with the others.

“Tasianna is still working on that. However, we’ve gotten hungry, so would it be possible for you to cook us something?” I asked.

““““Of course, Lady Hestia.”””” And with perfect synchronized bows, Svena, Josine, Lorena, and Haati rushed to clean the table and prepare it for us to sit down.

Once we did, Neill looked at me as if she had an important question. “So, little sis, I have a question. Do you have a training ground somewhere in this place?”

Hold on, that was it? It seemed she was still worried about her own training.

“Yeah, I got one. Large enough to go wild, but I have something better, why don’t we take a dungeon dive? I can get us to Cedaraille, instead of being stuck in here.”

“Ooooooooooh~” Neill looked convinced.

But, before she could say anything Renee interjected. “Hold on for a moment here. I know this is already incredible how we went from Elyonda to the Kingdom of Artorias’s capital to the capital of Estralia, but you’re telling me we can go to another place? I know I shouldn’t be asking here, but I’ve been curious, how are you doing this? I’ve never heard of something like this being possible.”

“Hey, come now, Renee, not like you ever met a void-touched before, right? Aleistunum or not, space-time mages are sooooo rare, even a dragon could live a lifetime without meeting one. Of course something like this would be foreign,” Neill supported me, trying to protect my professional secrets.

“I understand that, but just seeing from how it's used, isn’t this the perfect army moving tool? It could turn around a whole war with how it could ease logistics.” Renee was obviously looking at my subspace and nexus as a military tool, and while I could understand it, I didn’t want to talk about it at the dinner table.

“Sure, it might, but can we not talk about war and so on right now?” I frowned.

“Why not? You are a priestess of the Goddess, no? You should know what is currently going on down south. While the conflicts of the Empire and the Carmaniate isn’t to scoff about, I assume you should know the importance of the world’s war with the demonkins, right? The last thing we can afford is Bole’Taria succeeding.” However, to my chagrin, Renee didn’t stop, instead, it seemed my indifference seemed to have fueled her drive even further.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

And, apparently, Neill didn’t seem to like that at all. “Renee, I didn’t allow you to ask my little sister a favor, only for you to start trying to pull her into your damn war! As I told you before, we dragons will remain neutral in this conflict.”

“And for how long? As brave soldiers and mages die down south, all you dragons do is remain on your little island until everything is burned to ashes? I’ve read the stories of Kargryxmor. I know what a single S rank dragon or higher could do to turn the tides.” Renee then pulled off her helmet, staring at us outside the confines of her armor. “Consider your role, Fargryneill. God Kargryxmor swore to the Goddess his race would become the world’s protectors. How come that oath is left unfulfilled?”

[“You are speaking out of order, human.”] Shay lashed out at Renee slightly, irritated at how she was speaking ill of Kramps as a non-dragon.

“He’s right,” Neill agreed, squinting her eyes in annoyance. “Shove this talk away, will you? We dragons have already done our fair share of things during the demon wars. Our Emperor wishes to distance himself, and so do our Empress Mothers. Try peace for once, instead of trying to prolong this war.”

“Are you insane?!” Renee banged the table with her fist, causing Beth to hiss at her. However, this did not dissuade the dame. “Do you truly think the demonkins would agree to our demands? Of course, not. The Empire has been waging war with them for over a thousand years now, on and off. Not to mention, the history between humans and the demonkins before the official war began. It’s muddied.”

Neill facepalmed herself, feeling like she just heard something stupid. “So? Are you trying to say this war will only end when one side eliminates the other? The Empire had over a thousand years of conflict to do that, but look where did it get them? A pincer between two factions. In the middle of that, they even angered the elves with the whole faefolk crap and had to surrender to them before it got worse. Goodness gracious, this is what conflict brings to the world.”

If I had to guess what Neill meant by that, then the War for the Faefolk was held during the whole conflict the Folschreck Empire had with the beastmen alliance and the demonkins. It sounded crazy, but it seemed they were at war on three borders.

The beastmen attacked them from the north while the demonkins came from the south, and even with all of that, they were stupid enough to start hunting faefolk to empower themselves, only to provoke the elves and dwarves to wage war agaisnt them from the west. Although the War for the Faefolk ended, I honestly had no idea how the hell the Empire had not collapsed yet. The military cost alone must be enormous.

“Doesn’t it seem like that?” Renee then turned to me. “Priestess, why did you join the tournament? I know Neill is here just to compete, but why are you here?”

I tilted my head, not knowing where she was going with this, but I answered anyway. “To protect the blood from going into the wrong hands?”

“Protect?” Renee raised an eyebrow. “Noble. In the place of the Folschreck Empire, I see. You have my thanks, as a Yeosian. ”

She stood up and bowed before sitting back down.

“And in your case, I believe it’s to acquire the blood, no? You want to become God Yeostar’s next Champion?” I deduced, and from the look on her face, I was correct.

“Yes. To bring an end to this war between the demonkins. However, I know from how the previous Champion died that it is impossible with the blessing alone. Sir Royce was a powerful knight, probably as or more formidable than the Empire’s Hands of Heaven. And every human has them to thank for upholding the bulwark of our faith against two dangerou opponents, but all of this is still not enough to end Bole’Taria!”

In other words, the reason why the Empire hadn’t fallen yet is ‘cause of their powerful knight order. Well, I believed it had to be one pivotal pillar for why the Empire hadn’t fallen yet with how they were waging war, but it still impressed me how Larent was once a part of this group. He was powerful when we dueled, but must be hiding an ace, right? No way would he be able to hold up an entire Empire with the strength he showcased.

After Renee was done with that part of her speech, she went back to Neill and me. “That is why we humans need the dragons. Uphold the oath your grandfather made, Dragon Princesses. Please, Fargryneill, consider it.”

“…” Neill went silent, only to sigh after a few seconds. “Renee, as I said bef—”

But before she could answer, I slammed the table and pushed myself up from my chair. “As I said, I don’t want to talk about wars or whatever on my dinner table. It’s rude, jeez. If you want to continue, then not with me. Rajah, tell me when food is ready, alright?”

[“Yes, Master! I will wait here.”]

Good boy.

As I was about to walk away, flabbergasting both Renee and Neill, Mother suddenly spoke up. “Allow me to accompany you, Hestia. Twins, please, stay here and make sure they do not ruin the interior.”

[““Yes, Empress!””]

With Mother by my side, we exited the portal, re-entering Reajaen’s laboratory where the three alchemists were starting to prepare the different ingredients. As they didn’t notice us as they focused on cutting and grinding the different herbs, I turned my attention to Mother.

“You were awake?”

“Of course, who can sleep through all that noise?” Mother shook her head.

“Then, can I ask you about your opinion?”

“Hehe, and here I thought you didn’t want to talk about wars, my little whelpling~” Mother was teasing me, but I didn’t care about it, shrugging my shoulders.

“We aren’t at the table.”

“Fair.” She then placed a hand on her chin, thinking about my question before answering it. “Well, as I told you when we first met, I will have no part in this war. You must because of duty, but don’t forget we dragons have already sacrificed enough. You already heard what your sister had to say, and she is right. Historical animosity between the humans, beastmen, and demonkins have exploded into the war we have today. Although its influence hasn't fully reached the west, it has left scars on everybody, right?”

The battle at Griffonpeak was a prime example of the demonkins starting to exude their presence over to the western part of Altrust, at least, to the humans. There was also the whole grimgarian affairs, too, but before that battalion could do anything, Aurora managed to stop them.

Even if I wasn’t officially part of the war against the demonkins just yet, I have participated in fights and encountered enough demonkins and Edjurl followers to make me not completely ignorant. I still had no idea how all these wars started out specifically, but since Aurena had asked me to bring a stop to the demonkin’s plan, what could I really say to this matter?

“Hestia, desperation and survival brings out the worst in people. Never forget about it. Whether human, beastmen, or demonkins — both sides have their reasons.”

I agreed to Mother’s words. If it weren’t for my drive to survive in the Belzac forest, I would have probably never developed a more “grey opinion” on killing and such.

“Don’t let them influence you. You aren’t a Peolyncian human, don’t forget that. You are a dragon princess of Kargryx. Your decisions matter, my whelpling. Istari is a good mentor in this case, as he demands you to acquire knowledge to form your own opinion on these matters. Good or evil have little merit against a mortal’s desires.”

“To end a war with peace, I had to first learn about both sides,” was what Mother tried to tell me. I had little to no idea what the demonkins, the average every-day citizen, thought of all these wars. All I had was the perspective of Aurena, her pantheon, and the humans of the west. I could end all of this with force, but conflict just breeds more conflict.

Although, was peace even possible in this scenario?

Let’s leave that decision for the future me. This is too much of a headache…

Once an hour or so was over, Tasianna called me over to produce a flame for the concoction to start brewing, and boy, did it start becoming interesting. The manner in which the three alchemists were managing the flame while also making sure their brew wouldn’t spill or break the beaker. It showed all three of them knew what they were doing, and I could rest easy nothing bad would happen.

After I had dinner with everybody, where Renee and Neill spoke little to nothing, I teleported Rajah and Neill over to Cedaraille. After all, I haven’t entered a dungeon in a while, so the both of us immediately rushed through the early floors of the Emerald-Flare dungeon and then jumped down the cliff at floor ten.

If I remembered correctly, if we continued freefalling, we would skip floor ten to 14, and land directly on floor 15. I just had to make sure to break our fall before we turn into mush, really. And once we were there, Neill, Rajah, and I began what we came here for — to level up.

Experience has reached multiple breaking points. [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]’s Main Job [Synergist] has risen from [Level 0] to [Level 15]

Attributes have increased due to level up

Max level of Job [Synergist] has been reached

Experience has reached multiple breaking points. [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]’s Secondary Job [Virulent Corrosion] has risen from [Level 9] to [Level 14]

Attributes have increased due to level up

Multiple proficiency requirements fulfilled. [Enhanced Vision Lv. 10] [Night Vision Lv. 9] gained

There were fortunately a lot of C ranks in this B rank dungeon, which helped us level our jobs by quite a bit, but even still, we weren’t lucky enough to meet a B rank. I couldn’t even find that slazzigula around at all, but maybe he was in the boss room of the place.

“Argh, I wish I had a damn crystal! My Job levels are maxed again!” Neill complained, which I couldn’t help but agree with. The fact we had to have a [Crystal of the Divine System] to change our Jobs was pretty annoying, and I seriously wished we had one on hand right now.

… Too bad the only way to make them was with the shards of a dungeon core, right? Right???

In any case, we had to stop our hunting trip not ‘cause of our maxed levels, but it was time for bed. Neill showed me her wings for the first time, which resembled mine quite a bit, only they were completely black. With the two of us being able to fly, I grabbed Rajah, and the three of us rushed through the dungeon and exited it, dropping a visit at the local hunter’s guild for a job switch, before returning to Duke Greenveil’s mansion where we took the rune portal back to the subspace.

Individual [Sunfang Dragonewt, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor] has switched her Main Job to [Virulent Corrosion]

Main Job benefits have been updated due to Job change

Virulent Corrosion Level: 14/30

Job Skill gained: [Virulent Corrosion]

Individual [Sunfang Dragonewt, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor] has switched her Secondary Job to [Ravager]

Main Job benefits have been updated due to Job change

Ravager Level: 0/15

“Oooh, kahahaha, I can’t believe you have a hot spring inside this place, too!” Neill exclaimed as we entered our bathing facilities with Mother and Beth, outside of Renee, who told us she would enter after we were done. Tasianna and Rita also couldn’t come, as they said they would have to work through the night to make sure it turned out right tomorrow.

As Neill was about to run and jumped into the hotspring, I grabbed her tail and stopped her from doing so, scolding her she had to clean herself first before entering it. Sis laughed it off as a mistake, having forgotten about hot spring etiquette after not being in one for years, but how could you forget something like that?

“Hmm? So that’s your core, huh? It looks like a gem.” Neill inspected my chest, causing me to frown a bit in embarassment, only for Mother to join the discussion.

“Isn’t it? Right? I knew she inherited that part from me! Just like my scales, Hestia is starting to develop nicely with her draconic features. Don’t you think so, too?”

“Oh, definitely. But, how often is she shedding? Your scales should gleam like mine! Sis, you oughta keep up your shedding schedule, otherwise you’ll end up wasting away your beauty.”

“… Are you seriously talking about beauty and all that stuff with a one-year-old? Jeez.”

“I’m talking with my mentally 16-year-old sister trapped in a one-year-old whelp’s body, jeez. I’m not gonna treat you like a whelp in that body of yours, little sis.”

Touché.

Once our bath was over, I showed Neill and Renee to their rooms and we called it a day. The herbal drainer took a whole night to create as Tasianna said, but once morning came, the little pot of aromatic water graced my nose as I sniffed on it. I did feel a tingling coming from it, which Rita called was mana around my nose getting drained from it.

“Do you see this?” She pointed at a blue spot before it dissipated and steam appeared from it. “Mana is drained and is soaked in the water from the mandragora roots. If it's still warm, it will instantly release the mana back into the air, purifying whatever arcane corruption.”

In other words, once we were inside the mansion, I had to heat it up a bit and it would be able to do its job. With the drainer done, we said our goodbyes to Reajaen and returned to the area in front of Renee’s mansion. I dismantled the [Terra Wall] dome I created around us, returning the light back around us.

Rita then went to the nearby garden, before her feet ingrained herself into the ground. As she sunk into the ground, her legs turned into that giant rafflesia flower again, making it look like she was protruding out of it. In that state, she connected her mana with the surrounding vegetation, allowing her to control the giant vine ball and forcing them to retreat and open up.

With the way cleared, Tasianna, Rajah, Neill, Renee, and Rita entered the slightly decrepit house. Mother and the twins decided to stay back, saying they rather enjoy the fresh air. Fair. Not like this would take that long, honestly.

The mansion was completely devoid of any furniture or decoration, seemingly having been cleaned out by a moving crew. It made the place seem so hollow and lonely, but since this place was only used now as a place to store the heirloom of Renee’s father, it couldn’t be helped.

Down in the basement, Renee led us to a hallway with a entryway barricaded with planks and scorch marks around it. After we tore them off the door, Renee told me to warm up the drainer before she opened the door, only for my senses to go haywire when I noticed the lilac smog seeping out from the crevice.

“Put it down,” Renee ordered and I did just that.

We immediately dashed back to the staircase, where we slowly watched the purple smog slowly moving towards the herbal drainer as if it was lured in by something. Neill told us, the last time this happened, they moved into the room and tried to get the medallion, only for everything to explode around them. That was why there were marks of that event on the door frame.

After what felt like an eternity of waiting, no more purple smog was leaking from the room, but to stay safe, Neill released her scales, creating a barrier before her as she opened the door wide. Since nothing exploded as she entered the room, she gave us the thumbs up and took down her scale barrier, only to suddenly—

“WHAT?!”

— scream out.

“It’s gone! Shit!”

Neill rushed right into the room, breaking something wooden with a loud crack, and causing the rest of us to follow right behind her. However, once Renee saw what Neill did, she let out her own “WHAT?!” before pointing her head towards the giant hole next to the room’s walls, with wooden plank debris laying before it.

“Tsk! Rita, get out of here. We’ll check this out ourselves,” Renee commanded Rita, and the dryad nodded.

“S-Sure, stay safe, alright! In the meantime, I’ll check on the drainer and see how well it worked. I’ll have it done once you’re back.” She dashed right out and picked up the herbal drainer, before leaving the basement.

Renee then looked over to Tasianna, Rajah, and me. “I know this is asking a lot, but I believe I have some unwelcome guests enter my home. Could I ask for some more of your time?”

“I don’t know how fresh all of this is, but—” Neill stomped the ground, releasing glowing blue lines through the ground and into the long-winded tunnel. “— I think our thieves are still around. Sis, mind helping my friend out for a moment?”

“Got it, let’s go!” I agreed. “Tasianna? Rajah?”

“Of course, Lady Hestia.”

[“Master’s will!”]

Rajah slipped into his shadow as I pulled my glaive out from my storage, having no need to hide my [Space-Time Magic] from Renee anymore. Renee unsheathed her curved shortshort and projected a shield of wind with her catalyst, while Tasianna created a few floating ice daggers. Neill was a brawler and used scales as her weapons, so she was ready at any time.

Before we went in, I asked Neill and Renee how well they could see in the dark, which the former said her [Night Vision] was only level four while Sis has it at max. Still, since we didn’t know who our opponents were, Renee opted to use her sensory skills instead of exposing our position with fire.

With Renee leading the way while I protected the rear, we quickly formed a party amongst ourselves and entered the tunnel. It felt extremely eerie with how deep the tunnel was. With the fact Neill’s dragon paths could only tell us something was inside this cave, but not what and how many, we couldn’t really relax and the tension was growing around us.

However, it was purely ‘cause our guards were up that when it came for our senses to be tested, I noticed something on the ground. A small indentation, which looked like somebody’s attempt to hide their footsteps.

“Stop!” I called out, pointing everybody’s attention to the ground, only for Renee to notice further signs of somebody trying to hide their steps, which all lead right into the wall. Upon further inspection, Rajah noticed there were two small gaps in the wall.

It was an [Earth Wall].

“Shit! Hestia!”

“Got it!”

The wall exploded right in front of us, just moments after we narrowly erected our scale barrier around us. Although we survived that attack, in the next second, four silhouettes flanked around our barriers, slashing at us with their daggers. Renee and Tasianna reacted immediately, fending off the attacks with their blades.

“Gruuuuuu!” A loud warcry assaulted our ears in this tight corridor, prompting me to bring my scale barrier down as I dashed forward, swinging my glaive forward to intercept the large waraxe.

“Grouh!” The larger creature in full armor snarled at me, showing off his small tusks and the glint of excitement in his eyes.

“Grimgarians!”

A grim day was awaiting us.