Si'janrii and I stood facing our three opponents, all of whom were suddenly a lot less interested in attacking. Not that the two unknown ones had been particularly interested to start with. If there were reasonable ones among them, how come I only met utter bastards on my first trip?

It gave me my first chance to get a proper look at them. While Si'janrii and Si'chieen wore some sort of standard issue guard armour, that had been shared by the other defenders of the checkpoint below and was very similar to the town guards I'd seen, the new pair were more mismatched, wearing what looked like whatever individual pieces they had found. Their armour was well-worn, covered in scratches and dents, while the armour of the guardsmen was pristine and shining, despite their scarring. They obviously weren't part of the same organisation.

"You claim not to be a monster, and then do something like that?" said Si'chieen quietly, but I could tell he was expending a lot of effort to keep himself under control. These fox-kin had very expressive ears.

New skill gained: Novice empath

A good adventurer should always know what their opponent is thinking. Allowing an enemy's calm facade to mask their seething rage is a good way to end up with a knife in your back. This skill will help you read facial, body, voice or other cues to let you know your opponent's emotions.

Oh, bonus. A new scouting skill. I suppose I'd been assigning emotions to monsters for long enough that it wasn't a surprise I got something for it. But extra skills didn't make me any less angry at his hypocrisy.

"That's rich, given where I got that collar. Who was it that grabbed my hair to hold me still while it was fitted around my neck? I had to commit suicide to escape. Cutting my throat like that hurts, you know!"

"That's different," he spat. "You lower life forms don't know how to do anything but rampage. If you're to live in civilization, you need to be controlled. You should be thankful we offered you the chance."

"Let's leave," said the larger of the reasonable ones. Appraisal called him Si'canna while the smaller was Mi'taan. It also informed me that Mi'taan was highly proficient in the use of ice affinity magic, while Si'canna was another overly buff warrior type. Was the first syllable of their name their vocation?

"What?" exclaimed Si'chieen incredulously. "You want to abandon Si'janrii?"

Ah, so that's how you pronounce it. I wasn't actually far off.

"We have no choice. If we fight here, we would have to go all out to stand any chance of victory. In such a fight, Si'janrii would die. If you hold back from fear of hurting him, we will die instead. Is that what you want?"

I glanced at Si'janrii, who despite standing steady with his spear in hand, had eyes that were so full of fear that I almost felt bad for him. Almost. Again, he'd wanted to do this to me, which made it hard to feel any sort of pity.

"...Fine," muttered Si'chieen, stepping backwards. "You will pay for this," he growled at me.

Si'canna joined him, edging backwards towards the tunnel downwards, but Mi'taan didn't move, watching me curiously.

"What do you intend now?" he asked. "You must know we'll be back in sufficient force to rescue Si'janrii and deal with you."

It was a valid question. I'd royally trashed my efforts at hiding, and should never have been playing with the collar while waiting for them to leave. I shouldn't even have remained in the room! I'd just wanted to keep an eye on them so that I knew when they left, but now I'd completely lost control of the situation, and didn't have a clue how to recover it.

I already knew they had people far more powerful than anyone in this group, and while they wouldn't come here for the bounty, they might very well join in a rescue mission. The only plan I could come up with on short notice was to convince them to leave, then interrogate Si'janrii and hope he could give me something that would help make a new, better plan. For now, though, it was time to de-escalate like my life depended on it, because it very likely did.

"What are you doing?!" Si'chieen snapped. "Don't give it information!"

"My original hope was to make peaceful contact, so I could explore more of this place," I answered, ignoring him. "Unfortunately, given what happened the first time I tried, I doubt that's possible. Given that, the best I can do is to stay up here and out of your way, and make sure it's not worth your time to come after me. If you leave, I'll send Si'janrii down once you're gone. Will that be enough to make sure your elites don't come looking for him?"

I'd decided to make my answer all about them, and not mention my actual goals. Saying that I would pass through their territory and not stay in it risked me finding extra guards posted at any other exits from their cavern. Saying I was after the holy sword could result in them guarding it, or trying to take it for themselves. Claiming I was looking for more shrines would result in them assuming I was going to break them.

"Only briefly," answered Mi'taan. "Once Ja'yakril hears that we met someone with all the memories of the creature he met earlier, you can be sure he'll put every drop of his fortune that he can spare into retrieving you. But please don't colour our whole species because of your bad experience with a couple of idiots who can only think with their muscles."

At that, Si'chieen made an attempt to punch the mage from behind, but Si'canna caught his fist and dragged him back, ignoring his swearing and threats. Meanwhile, I was regretting my decision about acknowledging that I knew them... Or maybe not; given how excited Ja'yakril had been over my item box, he probably would have come after me, regardless.

"You mentioned you repaired the shrine. Would you happen to know why it was damaged?" Mi'taan asked, completely ignoring the commotion behind him.

"It was a bunch of spiders. Umm... aranea volito, I think they were called. Then the centipedes... I mean, chilopoda, took advantage of the weakened barrier to spread out of their territory."

Si'chieen scoffed in disbelief, but the other two were looking thoughtful.

"Then I'd like to make a proposal," Mi'taan started, speaking confidently. "Release Si'janrii, and we'll withdraw and ask a member of the clergy to visit this shrine."

"What? No we fucking well won't!" yelled Si'chieen, causing Si'canna to punch him in the head.

"They'll be able to confirm whether the barrier is functional," continued Mi'taan, disregarding the interruption, "and if it is, it would confirm your story. If the temple declares you not to be a monster, you'll be granted the same rights as any other citizen of our settlement."

I stared in disbelief as I knocked my ranking of the ice mage down a few notches. "You want me to give up my hostage with the three of you standing right in front of me? That seems like a terminally bad idea..."

"True, it does appear that thanks to those two, we have some unresolvable trust issues. Then let me modify my suggestion. I'll stay here, as a substitute hostage for Si'janrii."

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I saw hope blossom in Si'janrii's eyes, while Si'chieen just stared, presumably torn between saving his friend and exploding at Mi'taan for being such an idiot. And on this occasion, Si'canna seemed to agree with Si'chieen for once.

"Why?" I asked. "Unlike this one, who tried to sell me and helped start this whole mess, I don't have anything against you."

"Exactly. Given your claim that you don't intend to use him as a hostage, swapping for someone you have no grudge against lends you additional credence."

"Maybe, but what's in it for you?"

"Unlike a guard, I'm not privy to any defensive secrets that would do our settlement harm if they got out. Leaving you alone with him in that state would... cause difficulties. Also, I'd welcome the chance to talk to you properly for a bit without those two imbeciles interrupting every two seconds, even if the price is having to wear that evil thing."

"You're sure about this?" asked Si'canna, frowning.

"I am. Just don't take too long over your trip."

Personally, I didn't much care who I got. I did want someone to ask questions of, and the slave collar should force them to answer me regardless of their cooperation, but I had no idea how useful either of them would be as a hostage in the first place. With no idea what sort of abilities their stronger individuals possessed, how was I supposed to prepare? What if they had someone talented with mind magic, for example? Or some even worse type of magic I hadn't even dreamed of? Without being sure what I was doing, trying to keep anyone as a hostage was likely to cause more problems than it solved.

"Fine, come over here then."

Mi'taan complied, and I tapped his and Si'janrii's necks, transferring the slave collar into and out of my item box so fast that it looked like I'd teleported it from one fox-kin to the other. Si'janrii twitched as his body returned to his control, then fled down the passage without uttering a word, completely ignoring his three companions.

"Well, that was rude of him. He could have at least thanked you," I commented.

"We'll be back within the hour," said Si'canna, turning and leaving too. Si'chieen was looking downright confused, which I suppose was an improvement on his previous attempts at murdering me purely with the power of his glare, but soon turned and left too. That he was prepared to turn his back on me was promising, maybe?

"Seems you're stuck for a bit," I commented at the Mi'taan statue. Apparently the default state stopped him from even moving without my permission. Nevertheless, he was looking far more relaxed about his situation than Si'janrii had been. Also interesting was the mention of an hour. Did they use the same time units as me, as well as their language? Then where did a day come from when they couldn't see the sun? "So, talk to me. Tell me about the vulpes sagax."

I learnt a lot over the next hour. They were a people split strictly into castes; warriors, mages, priesthood, merchants, artisans and... the others. Anyone who couldn't fit into one of the main groups was considered a failure, and treated little better than slaves themselves. Their only settlement was in the large cavern, and their lord had disallowed them from moving elsewhere. Even sending out parties beyond their assigned territory was discouraged, without a specific task in mind.

And yes, their lord was the dragon only a short corridor's journey from here. Whether it was the one that made them, I didn't know, but they certainly seemed to think so. Despite that, their worship was dedicated to the goddess represented by these statues. Given that this world quite possibly didn't exist a few weeks back, and the whole bored dragon thing was likely just a backstory, they probably made the correct choice. Not that they seemed to think they were only a few weeks old. Then again, with the time dilation, I guess this place could have been run for centuries before I was teleported in.

They did have exactly the same time units as me, but a day was the time it took the pink and yellow trees to switch colours. I hadn't even noticed that they changed. They knew what the surface was, in an abstract sort of way, but no-one was known to have visited it, nor did he have any idea how to get there, so it hadn't influenced their units of time at all.

I tried some discreet questioning to find out if they had skills and classes in the same way that I did, but without outright revealing what classes were, I couldn't get an unambiguous answer. They certainly had abilities that could be improved, but the same could be said of anyone back on Earth. Some of their abilities were obviously supernatural, but that wasn't conclusive either. It did seem they didn't get resistances in the same way that I did, though, so I thought it most likely that they weren't operating on the same skill and class system that I was. I was even more sure once questioning on how they measured abilities didn't mention any sort of magical floating words.

I was also thankful to discover that their mages usually used fire magic, which, given the species' description, shouldn't have been a surprise. Mi'taan was a rarity with his talent for ice. They certainly had no mind mages at the level needed to repeat the giant centipede's stunt. Which reminded me of their earlier conversation.

"I killed it," I said, answering the question they'd been pondering after returning from its territory.

"Pardon?"

"The chilopoda sagacitas. You were asking what killed it. It was me, although it took me four lives to pull it off. Or three and a bit. Not sure if the last one counts. I... fatally poisoned myself beforehand as a defence against its mind magic, but turned out I didn't need it."

"And why are you sharing this with me?"

"You did say you wanted to talk, and I've been the one asking questions so far. It's only fair to give you a turn, whether you're wearing that collar or not. My third life tangling with it, it got me good. Brainwashed me into thinking I was one of its spawn, even. So... obviously that's left me rather unhappy with the whole idea of mind control."

And I was still referring to it as an it, despite it obviously wanting me to use 'he'. Wonder if it was as annoying for him as it was for me when these fox-kin do it? I should try to correct myself.

"Then, if you don't mind me asking, you keep talking about living multiple lives. How does that work?"

Nope. Despite how cooperative he was being, I wasn't going to give an accurate answer to that one. I'd stick with what he could already tell, or would be able to with a bit more observation. "I'm functionally immortal. When one body dies, I simply grow a new one and carry on." I snorted a little at a sudden thought, the collection of my bones gradually eroding in the murder tree's pool coming to mind. "Shame our hour is almost up. I should have shown you my graveyard. My average lifespan is a day at most, so it's quite packed."

Mi'taan raised an eyebrow quizzically, but I wasn't going to give him more than that. My fixed respawn locations and the time delay were weaknesses I wasn't going to share.

"Actually, since it is almost up, time to fulfil my promise," I added, standing up and tapping his collar, which vanished back into my item box. "I never liked the idea of using a tool as disgusting as this to start with."

His eyes widened with surprise, but I also picked up... satisfaction? About being correct?

Novice empath advanced to level 2

Thankfully, I was equally correct about him, and he didn't immediately attack me or anything. Neither did he leave, which I certainly would have forgiven him for, instead leaning comfortably against a wall and waiting for our next round of visitors. I could have asked what he intended beforehand, but that would have spoilt the gesture. Perhaps he was right about judging their whole species... Hopefully I was right to trust him here, but if this went wrong too, I was done with them. No more chances. What was it my class description said? They would learn to fear my mad laughter.

On consideration, I was likely only giving them this second chance because they looked mostly human. Yes, they were sapient, and they'd built a communal settlement, but the same was true of the spiders. I'd broken into the spider's territory uninvited, destroyed what they had built, then killed them all when they defended it. Had they looked human and used words instead of clicks, would I have done that even if they'd acted exactly the same? Quite possibly not...

It took another ten minutes before the fox-kin returned, with sense presence picking up two powerful entities ascending from below.

Sense presence advanced to level 5

"I assure you, the barrier is fully operational," came a voice from the distance.

"Then it's bypassing it somehow," came another voice, which sounded very much like Si'chieen despite the distance and echoes. "We need to rescue Mi'taan, then kill or capture it."

"Would you please shut up and keep your paranoia to yourself," said Si'canna, who was apparently also a part of the approaching group.

"It stabbed me in the wrist and put a pet collar on my brother! How is that paranoia?"

Oof, Si'janrii and Si'chieen are brothers? No wonder their attitudes are so alike.

"It only acted in self-defence," Si'canna replied, now sounding much clearer as they got closer.

"That's enough from both of you," said the first voice. "The temple sent me to pass judgement, and I shall do so based on the evidence before me, not from hearsay."

A group of four entered the shrine, both of the newcomers responding to sense presence. One I recognised as the lone fox-kin I could detect when passing through their defensive wall, who appraisal called So'layn. The last was the first woman I'd seen among the fox-kin, wearing a long, sky-blue robe rather than armour, and with an unblemished face lacking the scars of most of the males I'd seen. Mi'taan had been the only one without any. Appraisal called her Do'myrith and declared her proficient in holy magic.

"Hi," called Mi'taan, giving them a wave. "Thanks for coming."