A brief silence reigned our mental connection.

“You what?!” a shrill scream blasted into me. Good thing that it was a mental scream, otherwise my Core might have very well shattered.

“Yeah, no, sorry. Looks like Thistleskin isn’t listening to me outside my Dungeon’s domain,” I pause for a moment, “maybe it’ll obey if you can get it into the domain of a Dungeon Seed?”

“You’re fucking impossible, you know that? Fine. Can you at least provide us with some assistance?”

“I’ll do what I can. Anything specific in mind?”

“Not yet. Just… stay on standby.”

With that rather worrying conversation out of the way I give the whole thing one more look.

The single tree in the clearing of destruction is just standing there, completely unmoving. Unless TUP gained the Ability to create decoys that’s definitely it. Which means there isn’t enough ambient mana there to fuel the Boss.

That good, except that… a closer examination reveals a slight problem.

It turns out Thistleskin may have gained some new Abilities after all, just not a decoy one. In fact, it may very well have gained two Abilities! Not good.

Not only is it draining energy not just from ambient mana, but from all the tiny organisms and plants that are within range. And as if that wasn’t enough, it’s also managing to store that power.

Which means that once it has fuelled up enough it will be capable of going on a rampage even into mana starved areas.

As I said, not good.

Maybe I could make another, similarly powerful, monster to drag it back here. But only risks the other monster also going rogue outside my domain and doubling the threat.

I’m sure I can figure something out in time.

----------------------------------------

While our dearest Dungeon Core was trying to figure out a solution from afar, a certain fairy and its three adventurers were trying to come up with one from up close.

“That thing is way too strong,” knightly Ram said.

“Additionally, even its resilience is unparalleled,” Prshky muttered, “I can barely damage it with even overcharged mana bolts, and when I do it heals it right back.”

Although Ditti didn’t say anything in turn, it was obvious that they thought the same.

A monster, a Boss monster, like Thistleskin was too powerful for the power level of a planet like Lapis. Even weakened as it was by the lacking mana, the workarounds it had found brought it right back to full power. At least in short bursts.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Just goes to show that my training isn’t useless,” Faellen interjected. “Have any of you figured out the blessing yet?”

“No,” both Prshky and Ram said.

Surprisingly enough, Ditti answered with a, “Close.”

“Right then,” the fairy continued, “well, there’s been a change of plans. We don’t have to defeat it. If we can just lure it into one of the new Dungeons on Lapis, we should be good.”

“How will that help?” asked Ram.

“Ask your patron deity.”

That seemed to shut all three of them up. The whole blessing thing was still somewhat weird for them, especially with how many difficulties they were having unlocking it.

Be that all as it may be, they couldn’t do anything yet. Beaten and bruised as they were from the fight with Thistleskin, they first had to recover before doing anything more.

The same did not go for a certain surviving agent.

Although she was just as exhausted as the trio after running almost all the way back to town, she couldn’t rest just yet. The moment she entered the city another agent spotted her.

Seeing as she was exhausted almost to the point of passing out, he carried her to base.

They allowed her a bit of rest, mostly because she passed out as soon as she was laid to rest on a bed. Still, after a few hours the higher ups decided it had been enough. Someone was sent to wake the survivor agent up and bring her to an ominously lit room.

There, hidden in shadows, sat a council of higher ups. In front of them, right in the middle of a spotlight, stood a chair on which they sat the agent.

“Agent red ghost,” one of the shrouded figures spoke.

“Yes, sir!” although exhausted, the agent tried her best to appear focused.

“Were you part of the expedition to retrieve three subjects connected to the Light incident?”

“Yes, sir!”

“And yet you return now, alone and without the objective. Did you desert?”

“No, sir!”

“Then, pray tell, how come you’re sitting here in front of us now?”

And so she proceeded to tell them. How the expedition tracked the adventurers to the jungle. How they cut their way through. And how they chanced upon a monster unlike any they could’ve ever imagined.

She told them of how the monster killed them all and how it drained the very life out of its victims. And she told how she ran, knowing that this information was more valuable then continuing on.

Still, the interrogation went on, the shrouded figures asking many more question that red ghost had no answer to. Many of them still doubted the supernatural nature of all these new developments.

By the end of it all, agent red ghost was once more exhausted to the point of almost passing out. Not that she’d risk doing so on the chair in front of the council.

At last, she was allowed to leave the room and go rest, properly this time.

All the while, the people that had interrogated her continued talking.

“If magic is truly coming to our world, we need to secure it as soon as possible.”

“Are you fucking stupid? There’s no such thing as magic!”

“But what if there is? Can we risk an uprising once people have the power to do so?”

“People already have the power. They just don’t because we make sure it’s not necessary. Honestly, you’re always too paranoid about uprisings.”

“I agree. If anything, if magic were truly real there’d be the threat of a singular powerful tyrant rising up.”

Their conversation would continue long into the night, never quite reaching a conclusion.