Garnedell smiled and nodded, catching the core easily. He looked over it with interest, turning it in his hand but didn’t really say anything.

Curiosity got the better of Joe and he asked, “How many cores, Garnedell? Four or five?”

Garnedell glanced up, “Two core, Joe.”

“Two? Impossible!? It was way faster and stronger than even the three core slime.”

While Joe was protesting, Zilnek leaned over to Garnedell, confusion flickering across his face as he whispered way too loud to really be considered polite, “Three core? Two core? What’s that?”

Garnedell didn’t reply to Joe, but Joe nodded to Garnedell, letting him to explain to Zilnek while he spoke to Garnedell, “Here, let me see it Garnedell.”

Garnedell tossed it to Joe and his eyes went up when he saw that it really was just a two core monster. That’s crazy. The other two core slimes I fought before were a lot easier than this. Even the three core was easier to deal with. What’s going on?! If the categorizations are this bad… But Joe’s mind slithered off track as he noticed a subtle difference to the core and he brought it up to his eye to look more closely before he quickly dug out another slime double core from back when he’d been at the village. He compared the two and found them both identical in almost every way except this one seemed to have a flicker of some kind, an aura or sparkle, just around the edges Joe couldn’t pin but evident just enough that Joe couldn’t dispute it. There was something about this core that was different.

Joe interrupted the kid’s discussion about Joe’s preferred classification scheme using numbers instead of a list of names that seemed both arbitrary and unclear in their relation to one another. Who’s going to know whether a great slime or a master slime is better? Or a guardian slime, for that matter? It’s easier just to remember two, three, or four core! Now, core? Fine. Core works fine. Makes even more sense than my ‘gem.’ But great versus master versus guardian versus champion. Which one’s stronger? Seriously? Joe had taken the time to learn it because he had no choice, everyone else spoke that way, but Joe still found himself struggling to place them in order of strength. Or danger!

“Garnedell. This one’s… different. Can you see the sparkle? The weird … I don’t know what it is. It’s like a wave or … maybe a mirage? Yeah… a sparkling mirage.”

The three apprentices crowded around Garnedell as he took the core from Joe, all three peering at it and Joe held up the reference core up for the three to look at, but all three seemed unable to really see anything special, Garnedell finally returning the core back to Joe.

“I’m sorry, Joe. I have failed. I see nothing special,” Kilniara replied, bowing her head.

Joe’s eyebrows climbed a bit and he looked over to see Zilnek also looking down and away, embarrassment obvious in his posture. Joe turned his look to Garnedell, raising an eyebrow in hopes that Garnedell could explain what was happening to him. Garnedell, however, said nothing and continued looking at him, although Joe was able to catch a tenseness to his shoulders and Joe suddenly understood before shaking his head quickly.

“Hey. Look at me. All of you, look at me.”

Joe waited impatiently as it took a bit of coaxing to bring the two Acokzau, Kilniara especially, around to looking at him. When all three were looking at him, he offered a brightly exaggerated smile, pushing into the absurd. The non sequitur broke the somber mood and a stifled giggle from Kilniara relaxed the other two, especially seeing Joe’s smile brighten at her laugh.

“Relax! You’re fine. I’m not angry. I just wanted help. If you can’t help, you are not a failure. Relax.”

The tension visibly drained from the three and Joe smiled before turning away, allowing them some privacy. Gotta remember. I’m… I have some kind of position here. He heard the whispers as the three began conversation again, and when he heard giggles and light hearted conversation, Joe felt his own shoulders relax and he returned his focus to the hallway in front of him. The map showed the same as the spark monster location, with a room blocking the way to a last dead end hallway.

His cautious movement down the hall proved unneeded, the hallway devoid of any traps, and they soon found another chest bearing another medallion: sigil of the goblin king’s slime. Yup. Same thing. Two more to go.

Flipping open the map, Joe found the entire right half of the map now filled in, completely explored, and Joe led the way back to explore the left half of the map. He did take the time to mark the location of the boss fifth floor entrance before continuing on. Not worth getting lost in here if we forget where to go after killing the other two sub bosses, right? The return to the center was quick enough, and they soon found themselves back at the beginning of the maze, the center and left paths still unexplored.

“Are we lost? I think we’re already back at the beginning,” Zilnek called out.

Kilniara hissed at him and slapped him on the arm, and Joe smirked at the interaction, amused at the younger sister’s attempt to teach an older brother how to be polite. He ignored it and chose to answer honestly.

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“Nope. Not lost. We’re right here, see? We came from over here. The slime was here. The fifth floor door is here. The spark was way down here. You can see this whole way down from here is blocked so the only way we can get into the left half of the maze over here is to get back to the first fork near where we already explored.”

The explanation seemed to satisfy them, and Joe once again began his cautious way through the maze, probing the way with his staff. Another boring hour or so of caution soon found them coming upon another room, and Joe stopped the group before they entered, having them settle on the floor leaning against the walls across from each other before taking out a meal.

“Time to eat. The next boss is just in there. You guys want to fight it?”

Garnedell and Kilniara widened their eyes in shock, trepidation obvious on their face, while Zilnek excitedly punched the air, “Yes! We can do it!”

Joe looked at Zilnek in surprise before shaking his head, “You would die, Zilnek! Garnedell, Kilniara. Relax. I was joking,” Joe offered a small chuckle at the end as he turned away and started bringing out food for everyone.

Zilnek sulked at Joe’s reply, although Garnedell obviously seemed to understand Joe a bit better and questioned him, “Then why did you ask, Joe?”

“You learn a lot about yourself in how you react. You need to make sure you find balance in those reactions.

“Zilnek. Your bravery is good, but it could make you fight something you’re not ready to fight, like this boss in there. You’d end up dead, and I don’t even know what’s in there, although it is probably two core, just like the other two. Can you fight a two core… a great … whatever?”

Zilnek’s head dropped a bit before looking up, “I could try.”

“And that’s all you will ever do: try and die. You need to learn to say no, so that you can learn and grow and be able to come back later and then you can do it. But right now, you would just die.”

Garnedell seemed to perk up at that, a smile of pride showing on his face and Joe looked back at Garnedell.

“Garnedell. You and Kilniara have the opposite problem of Zilnek. You fear and worry. Not a bad thing, but you need to be cautious. You guys are opposite sides of the same spectrum. Sometimes, you need to wait, Zilnek. Don’t just do everything whenever you can. But Garnedell, Kilniara, sometimes Zilnek is right. You might not have time to be worried or cautious, you’ll just die planning. Doing nothing is just as much of a choice as doing something. Don’t let fear control you two. And Zilnek, don’t let excitement control you!

“All three of you need to learn how to look at what’s around you, study carefully, then make a choice. Make a choice to act; Kilniara, Garnedell; if not acting is a worse action. Make a choice to wait, Zilnek, if you have the option and you have a chance to be killed, even just a very small chance. You only have one life. Save it and use it wisely!

“It’s not… brilliant or amazing, but just find balance. You have learned something about yourself today. You two favor caution. Good. But don’t let it control you. You, Zilnek, favor action. Also good! But, also, don’t let it control you!”

Joe looked at all three, staring with some force. All three quickly nodded and Joe smiled, handing out the food. The conversation was amiable enough, all four chatting and joking with one another.

Zilnek proved quite a bit braver as he was soon interacting with casual familiarity with Joe and as Joe allowed it, even reveling in it, Garnedell was soon relaxing. Joe hoped Kilniara would join in, but her reticence seemed to hold her back. Or maybe she’s just the silent type? Kilniara did relax quite a bit, laughing and giggling at all the comments but offered few of her own. The meal passed in comfortable companionship and Joe felt a sense of belonging for the first time since arriving at this strange place. Joe soon found himself growing more silent, simply settling into the moment and belonging. In the belonging, however, a melancholy grew as Joe’s mind turned to his family whom he had left behind. He’d long been used to being alone, away from family. The nature of his training often left him away from his mother, father, and brother for months at a time. But now, with the realization of entire solar systems occupying the space between him and his family, he felt lonely, truly lonely and barely kept the tears from forming in his eyes. He did not feel any sense of family with the two Acokzau, and only a slight sense of responsibility towards Garnedell since he was still so young. But this was the first time he’d felt relaxed enough in almost six months and found a camaraderie that he didn’t know he had been missing.

As tears began to force themselves out, Joe turned his mind away, uncomfortable to show emotion in front of two people he hardly knew; uncomfortable even in front of Garnedell despite knowing him longer. He turned his head down and away to hide his tears while he began packing away their belongings from their lunch. Packing his back pack, he propped it up against the wall and prepared to head to battle, keeping his back to the kids.

“I’ll head out to kill the next boss. You guys can just rest here if you want.”

Joe walked around the corner when he heard Zilnek speak up, “Can we come watch?”

“Of course, just watch the bag, please.”

Joe heard scrambling behind him as the three apprentices jumped up to follow him, but he kept his back turned, not wishing to really reveal his emotional state, continuing on around the corner to look at what he would kill next.

* * *

Zilnek lingered a few moments, allowing his sister and Garnedell to leap excitedly to their feet after Joe. He let the two get ahead of him before also exaggerating the noise of leaping to his feet quickly, although he bent over the pack before standing and following after them. While he was bent of his master’s pack, Zilnek let his hand naturally slide down into the pack before dipping into the pouch holding all the cores. His hand slid into the pile of cores and cupped a dozen or two cores in his hand. His eyes flashed downward and flickered across what was in his fist, seeing a Great core mixed in with the pile and slipped it out. The pouch was absolutely stuffed with cores and while Zilnek had never seen so many Master cores, let alone Great and Basic cores, even one Great core would likely be noticed if it went missing. He wouldn’t dare take a Great or Master core. He was fairly certain master didn’t even count the Basic cores anymore, and his thumb slipped across the pile to flick the Great core out. Once his hand only held Basic cores, Zilnek stood quickly and followed after his fellow apprentices as he dropped his loot in his jacket pocket.

Never again. I need to protect my sister. I cannot be weak! Almost immediately after, however, Zilnek paused, almost a stutter in his steps as he felt overwhelming guilt. Master is so good to us. I’m sorry, master. I’m so sorry! However, his resolve firmed once again, although it firmed around a kernel of guilt at its core.

* * *