“Isn’t this a bit…” Layla waved her hand, “Well, I don’t know if…” Layla went silent.

“This is an awful idea, kid.” Oscar, at least, was willing to just say it outright. Of course, Oscar was probably willing to do anything. For instance, he was currently wearing an oversized gold coat with violet polka dots.

Cael wasn’t sure what he wore under it, but the flash of neon yellow that poked out over the collar promised to be something equally offensive on the eyes.

“Maybe so, but I was given an offer I couldn’t refuse.” As in, he hadn’t been given the option to refuse. He didn’t say it, but they all knew.

Cael glanced at the sitting figure of Lady Lar beside him. She smiled politely and sipped her drink. The changeling had declined one when Layla had offered almost an hour ago. He was regretting it a bit now because without it he had to sit in awkward silence while the high-leveled beings thought.

More likely they were all just listening to Cael’s thoughts. He had a feeling their minds worked faster than his own and as such had come to their own conclusions a while ago.

He opened his palm and stared at the small clock on it.

The ‘coin’ that Tar had handed him in the school prison had actually been an item made by Layla.

The one to point that out had actually been Lady Lar. As their meeting had ended, she had asked Cael to retrieve his belongings so he could be shown to his school-sanctioned living space, which Cael had a gnawing suspicion would be the cell he’d vacated a few hours prior.

When Cael had just stared at her blankly, she sighed and explained that the small disk could create a portal once activated. In this case, Lady Lar guessed that it would likely connect to Layla’s residence in Genus.

Of course, Cael hadn’t even mentioned Layla by this point, so it was a little unnerving that she knew that, but whatever.

And creepy or not, the big bird had been right. He’d activated the magic item and the coin had vanished, and in its place was a small clock set with a timer for one hour. Plus a casual hole in the fabric of space.

The coin had expanded in the air in front of him and then popped like a bubble, leaving an impossible gap in the air that was so magically dense that it was practically blinding through the lens of [Mana Sight].

Lady Lar, for her part, had simply traipsed through the gateway to Genus and knocked on Layla’s door. Cael had just sighed and followed after her.

In the present though, the timer had dwindled to show less than ten minutes remaining.

“Oh my, would you look at the time?” Cael frowned, pretending he had things to do. “I simply must be going now.”

The changeling rose to his feet and made for the door, but was caught before he’d managed to turn the knob. A wave of space magic swept past him and he was dropped back into his chair. He stared at Layla blankly; the most likely suspect for thwarting his escape.

“Don’t worry about it.” Lady Lar chirped, “I cleared your schedule for you.”

“I think she wants to see the dungeon soul.” Oscar offered. It wasn’t all that helpful. Cael had already assumed that was what she wanted. That was exactly why he had yet to summon Ava despite having capped his mana during the conversation.

He couldn’t be sure Ava would be safe in front of them.

“Why?” He locked eyes with the bird-woman. Her gaze was piercing and predatory.

“She broke my dungeon. I would like to meet her.” She inclined her head imperiously.

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As it was, Cael was pretty sure that she had the authority to arrest him for that. It was possible she could just kill him outright if she wanted. He didn’t know what the laws were around all this. It wasn’t like he’d done something like it before.

“Is that all you want to do?” He asked.

“For now.”

Cael frowned at her response. It was far too vague to assuage his worries.

‘Cael, I think it should be okay. Anything she could do to hurt us…’ Ava paused, ‘I think she could just do those without your permission. I find it much more likely that she truly wants to talk.’

Cael hesitated but eventually began to pour mana into Ava’s skill [Automaton Heart].

If Ava thought it would be alright, then he shouldn’t disagree. It was her own safety at risk.

Of course, he’d forgotten that activating the skill would briefly connect him to the elemental plane of metal.

It was… similar to the plane of shadow in a way, cold and sharp, but where shadow was adaptive and smooth, metal was rigid and stubborn. The sound of grinding metal was present with every impression. The smell of iron.

It was a lot easier on his brain than when he’d first summoned Tar, but he still had a headache once it was over.

He grew slightly confused when Ava didn’t spontaneously coalesce in the air like Tar had.

‘I’m your vambrace. Did you think you were creating elemental matter with a hundred mana?’ Ava asked in bewilderment.

“I absolutely did.”

‘Elementals at this level form from what is already there. As a shadow elemental, I have much more freedom to choose how I manifest than Ava does.’ Tar explained.

The suddenly sentient vambrace popped out a pair of bird legs and flopped onto the table with a slightly worrying clunk.

“Uh.”

‘Nice to meet you.’ Greeted Ava, the oddly steampunk-themed crow.

“You are not allowed to stand on my shoulder.” The form she had chosen looked, well, painful to hold. Many feathers ended in long serrated blades, and her metal talons looked wickedly sharp.

Unlike Tar, contact with her would likely end up with him bleeding.

‘I don’t think he gets it.’

‘But we planned this one out.’ Ava complained.

“What don’t I get?” Cael asked the two.

Without answering, Tar hopped onto the table beside Ava and stared up at him. Cael could feel the expectation from them both through their links. The black cat and-

“Wait.” Weren’t crows a sign of bad luck too? “You two are not funny.”

Ava tilted her bird head in amusement.

“I think it is pretty funny.” Oscar offered. “Though I’m not sure what you mean by calling them symbols of bad luck, I think you've been relatively lucky up to this point.”

“Stop reading my mind, you miss the context,” Cael said dryly, unappreciative of the fact that Oscar was right. The fact that he'd gained a friend as great as Ava meant that something pretty bad was sure to be right around the corner.

He looked back to the bird woman and waited for her questions. Instead, she watched Ava in silence.

‘I can feel her probing my soul.’

“You are not a dungeon being,” Lar stated with deep interest. “At least, not fully. You really existed at some point.”

‘Ages ago.’ Ava supplied. ‘I believe many thousands of years have passed since I last existed.’ Cael could feel that she was now projecting her thoughts for the whole room to hear.

Lady Lar nodded, “Yes, and based on your story, I believe the dungeon’s manifest point was initially a fragment of your own ship. It is not on display, but it is a large chunk of immensely durable metal. There are deep divots and scars carved into its surface.”

“Not just that. Many of the dungeon-given tasks would appear to be your daily chores.” She chuckled lightly. “Entrants to the dungeon describe a multitude of tests ranging from flight simulations where the entrant will have to evade a multitude of monsters, or target practice on similar creatures. After extensive study, we found that these monsters do not exist in our galaxy, and we assumed they were purely dungeon-made.”

Cael was pleasantly surprised by how polite she was being toward Ava. He’d certainly expected a lot more yelling and veiled threats.

“Other tasks were more mundane. These were rarer, but some entrants reported being tasked with repairs, refueling, elemental wrangling.” She gave Ava an appraising look. Probably because she was an elemental now. “Runic puzzles, problem-solving, well, I’m sure you have a better idea than most.”

Ava snickered. ‘I do know.’

This was almost, dare he say it, a normal conversation.