After a short, uncomfortable night on the hard ground, Kiresula woke up early and washed herself. She no longer noticed the smell of this place after having spent there for the night, only when her group and her left through the cave structure and cold, unsullied air came in, she noticed how bad it had been. Mayana confirmed and could not resist designing enchantments to protect the area on the flat ground in front of her. The drizzle as well as the cold made it quite hard to actually sketch anything. Eventually, a carriage stopped near them and Haina waved at the group to get in.

After the group entered, the driver had the horses take on a swift pace. Haina talked to Kiresula: “Hey, Kiresula, we got you out of there. Now it’s time for your contribution.”

She nodded and responded: “Of course!” Only then, she realised that she said it in Je-ashvehanu. Only a few moments later, she realised that Haina spoke to her in Je-ashvehanu as well. She asked: “You know Je-ashvehanu?”

Haina smiled: “I do, indeed. Do you think that someone literally named Haina doesn’t‽”

She responded: “I thought this was an Imperial name.””

Haina looked shocked: “So, that is why you spoke in Je-ashvehanu despite not being able to speak it even conversationally?”

She nodded and said: “You understand that what we said, just like our agreement, is considered a secret, do you?”

Haina nodded uncertainly: “I am not even sure that I understood what is going on.”

Kiresula had a strict expression on her face. She had seen people trying to change the topic: “Is that a yes, or a no?”

Haina gulped: “It is a yes. I understand the issue, even if I do not understand the subject. I will keep my mouth shut! I know that you don’t trust me, and I understand that our agreement is one of convenience, not of longstanding trust. But if I did something that would endanger you, it would endanger the project.”

Kiresula nodded, then asked: “By the way, where are we going?”

Haina smiled: “To the Savage Dungeon. Have you heard of it?”

Kiresula shook her head: “I have not. What can you tell me about it?”

Haina explained: “It is a dungeon that many [Holy Guard]s use to train in. There is a conflict and you either help the green goblins or the grey kobolds.”

Kiresula didn’t understand the terms in Je-ashvehanu, so Haina explained. When he explained the goblins as green-skinned, two-legged creatures, seldom outside but often in dungeons and kobolds as grey-skinned dog-faced, two-legged creatures, she understood.

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Kiresula asked: “So, there is a huge battle and we help one group to defeat the other? And… they are… goblins and kobolds… so,... very animal-like creatures? So, how will.. That work, like in general? How do they even know that we are on their side?”

Haina shrugged his shoulders: “Dungeon magic, I guess. They do not attack you after you have pledged your support to one side for the dungeon run. The dungeon actually protects everyone from collateral damage and area of effect spells. Both sides are also much smarter than they would be in real life. All part of being fictions of a dungeon with no more depth to them than a sheet of parchment, I guess.”

Kiresula raised an eyebrow: “That’s utterly convenient. So, one can actually use tactics and more elaborate ideas than to bash each other.”

Haina nodded: “You are right. Because of that, it has been a very famous dungeon for everyone who is remotely interested in battles, unfortunately, recently 2 people glitched in it, so now people cannot use it anymore.”

“What is the recommended level for it? As it is not a puzzle dungeon, I need to make sure it is not deadly for us.”

Haina smiled: “You need to be level 30 in a combat class to have a good chance to run it.”

The glitchling shook her head: “Okay, thanks for the suggestion to delve that dungeon, but I see no way we can do that. I know that we stumbled into the Forbidden Dungeon and made it out alive, but that was mostly due to using the environment and having been able to…” she searched for words, “use certain resources that we no longer have access to.“

Haina’s smile dropped: “You must find a way to do that! It is essential that we get this dungeon working as fast as possible. This place, it is so good at levelling folks that people will risk glitching to delve it. The freaking army had not been able to keep it to themselves. Administration tried and all it led to was massive corruption. Everyone up to the local Leader of Thousands was involved in smuggling folks in. It was an immense headache and they decided to instead open it generally and share it with the general public. Even if people are urged to stay clear, it will cause many to glitch. And I am sure that this is not in your interest.”

She shook her head. She didn’t want to get into an argument with him about this. She wasn’t even sure herself if this was a good thing or a bad one. “I don’t mean to rain on your parade, but if we all die in the dungeon, that helps no one. I assume that battle is on a flat surface and we cannot use gravity to our advantage, right?”

He nodded: “Yeah, there are some hills and vegetation, but the main battle area is flat like a table. Just not as wobbly!”

That made her grin. Mayana’s enchantments always made sure that tables didn’t wobble, both those in the house of her family as well as those that her father sold. “We only had been able to defeat these creatures using gravity and several falls that were enough to kill far stronger creatures than we were. I see no way we can do a lot in a direct confrontation.”

Mayana asked: “What are you two talking about? You know that this is too fast for me.”

Kiresula put her hand behind Mayana’s back and started to write a quick summary of the conversation on her back with her fingers. In the meanwhile, she asked Haina for a bit of patience.

To her surprise, Mayana responded in writing: “Ask him if this is the Savage Dungeon!”

She wrote back: “It is. He told me.”

Mayana sucked in air and answered in the same method: “We might have a chance. We need a place to talk strategy.”

“But what about the difference in levels?” Kiresula responded, her writing being faster as she got more agitated.

Mayana wrote back: “We would die in a fair fight. But no one says we need to fight fairly.”