Across the labyrinth, the monsters stopped hammering on the door to Stella’s boss room. They turned, looking at Milo expectantly.

Milo swallowed. “Er… hello.”

“Can you heal them?” Aster asked, putting his hands on his hips.

“Immediately? No. But uh, one batch at a time, sure. Uh, will Stella’s magic work?” Milo asked, uncertain.

“You can channel my mana. I’ll allow it,” the black-haired Dungeon Spirit said haughtily.

Milo licked his lips. He looked at his staff, then at the Dungeon Spirit. “Why not? What’s your name?”

“My name?” the Dungeon Spirit asked, taken aback.

“It helps me channel your mana,” Milo explained.

“My name…” she murmured, brows furrowing.

Aster gave her a soft look. “Do you have a name?”

She gave him a nervous look. “Of course I have a name! It’s a wonderful name. You’ll all be amazed by it!”

Aster smiled. “A wonderful name… like Nessa?”

“Like Nessa! Yes, of course. So, are you stunned?” she asked, putting a hand on her hip and tilting her head back.

Milo struggled not to crack a smile. With some effort, he nodded formally at Nessa. “Then, Nessa, will you grant me power?”

“Yes,” she declared, lifting her hand. Green mana congealed around her hand.

Holding out his staff, Milo closed his eyes. His lips began to move. The light on his staff slowly took on a green tone.

“Nessa, if we do this, you have to agree to stop attacking Stella. You’ll give up and return to your dungeon, and the two of you can hash out a deal in terms of sharing resources,” Aster said.

Nessa frowned. “I don’t know about that.”

“Milo, go ahead and stop—”

“No, no. I agree!” Nessa said, nodding hurriedly.

Aster glanced at Stella and gave her a little nod. Stella nodded back. Distant rumbling hinted at monsters moving from deep in the dungeon, quietly growing closer. In case she double-crosses us, it’s good to have our attackers ready to go. But if her monsters are no longer diseased, there’s no reason for Stella to hold her infectiable monsters back. The giant snakes, the huge tiger, that enormous centipede… they can all take to the field.

Daiyo cracked his knuckles and stood back. All the stone spirits rushed to his side, leaving him standing in a field of gently waving stone hands. “How’s it going? Everything working out up there?”

Aster gave him a thumbs up, and Daiyo thumbs uped back at him.

Milo spun around and held his staff up. Green light emanated from its end and whirled around a group of monsters on the ground. The monsters looked around, confused. Green light sunk into the monster’s wounds and sores, and cleansed them from the inside out. Pus and thick, disgusting fluids emanated from their skin, and one pitched forward and vomited.

“What’s happening? What’s happening to them?” Nessa demanded, grabbing onto Aster’s shirt.

“Look,” Aster said, pointing at the monsters.

Down below, the once-filthy monsters sat up, no longer diseased. Their fur, though still clumpy and thin, now shone and stood upright, and no more sores or patches of filth marred their flesh. One of the giant wolves sat back and scratched behind its ear, its eyes suddenly clear and not marred with cataracts, and no snot or phlegm in its nose or throat.

“They’re… cured?” Nessa asked, whispering to herself.

As Aster watched, a part of her black dress cleared, no longer tainted with brown and green filth. Her eyes, too, grew a little less brown, and a purer green in the same way Stella’s were pure blue.

“What happened?” Aster asked.

“Huh?” Nessa tilted her head.

“What infected your dungeon? How did you end up like this?” Aster clarified. I need to know, in case it threatens Stella, as well.

Nessa scowled. “Some other dungeon attacked me. I ran them off easily, but… but she said something about me regretting it later. And then… then all my monsters started to get sicker and sicker. Even if I respawned them, they’d come back sick. The other dungeon came back, and this time I couldn’t completely defeat her. She took part of my dungeon and made my monsters sicker, and ran away laughing… said she would just wait until I wasted away. I didn’t have an option. I had to find someone else to attack, so that I wouldn’t die…” She sniffled and rubbed her face.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“But we can cure your monsters, so you won’t have to die,” Aster said.

“That’s true. This time, I’ll run that other dungeon off!” Nessa declared, clenching her fist furiously.

“And then come back to us for healing?” Aster asked.

Nessa jolted. She turned, side-eyeing Milo. “Mmm…”

“A powerful dungeon like you surely wouldn’t think of something devious like stealing our priest,” Aster declared, arching an eyebrow.

“Ah! Huh? No! I wouldn’t!” Nessa said, shaking her head hard.

Stella narrowed her eyes. “Suspicious…”

“In any case, Nessa, you’re an older and more powerful Dungeon Spirit than Stella here. You even have an invasion boss. In exchange for teaching Stella how to become a better Dungeon Spirit, we'll continue to heal your monsters. How does that sound?” Aster suggested.

“Hey. Don't I get a say in this?” Milo muttered.

Aster cut him a look. “We’re letting you stay in this dungeon rent-free. Those who don’t work, don’t eat!”

“Huh? Didn’t I get kidnapped?” Milo asked, taken aback.

“And then you refused to leave when we let you go free, so now you’re just a freeloader,” Aster pointed out.

Milo licked his lips. “Hey…”

Silas laughed, shaking his head. “Seriously, Milo? You really like it here, don’t you.”

“Ah… I just… I feel like I can do something here. Like my life really matters, instead of… being decided for me by someone else,” Milo said, scratching the back of his head.

“Hey! You! Keep healing!” Nessa demanded.

Aster crossed his arms. “Is that how you ask nicely for something?”

Nessa licked her lips. “Uh… Please keep healing?”

Aster smiled. “That’s more like it!”

Milo sighed and raised his staff again. “I only have another few disease-curing spells in me today. After that, I’ll have to rest. You’ll have to wait until tomorrow, but… I should be able to finish healing your monsters by the end of tomorrow.”

“Only until tomorrow?” Nessa asked, wowed. She nodded, then a second later, cut back on her enthusiasm, quickly hiding it behind a haughty façade. “Only tomorrow? Hmph!”

Aster chuckled. Ah, the teen years… “So, Nessa? What do you say?”

Stella ran over to Aster’s side. “If you agree, let’s make a pact!”

“A pact?” Aster asked, looking at Stella from the corner of his eye.

She threw out her hand. Mana swirled, taking the shape of a crystal. Delicate shapes twisted around the outside of the crystal, vaguely reminiscent of the shape of her dungeon and the wobbly bodies of the slimes. “I put a pact on her, and we’re sealed!”

“You put a seal on her, and you two have a pact?” Aster said, translating it.

“That’s what I said,” Stella said, shaking her head at him in disappointment.

“A pact…” Nessa said, hesitant. She put a hand on her arm, under the sleeve of her dress.

“You already have one?” Stella asked, tilting her head.

Nessa scowled. “She made me. After I lost, I had to…”

“And now you lost to me, so you need to take my pact!” Stella said, nodding to herself.

Aster stepped forward. “What pact did you agree to with the other dungeon?”

“She gets a quarter of my mana for a year. And I had to pay her another quarter if I didn’t want all my monsters to die of sickness. In the end, she got half my mana…” Nessa wrinkled her nose. “She’s only getting a quarter, now!”

I should teach Stella math. A quarter of a whole and a quarter of three quarters doesn’t equal a half. It’ll at least give Stella the upper hand in situations like this! Aster thought to himself.

“What if she attacks you again afterwards?” Stella asked, creeping toward Nessa.

Nessa narrowed her eyes. “I’ll accept your pact if you make a pact to help me when that happens.”

Stella looked at Aster.

Aster paused and pondered for a moment, putting a hand on his chin. Stella can barely defend herself, let alone help another dungeon. On the other hand, helping Nessa doesn’t necessarily mean risking our everything to keep Nessa alive. If things get dangerous for Stella, we can always retreat. Helping Nessa is also a low-risk way for Stella to learn how to fight other dungeons, since she isn’t risking her own dungeon in the battle.

“We accept your pact,” Aster said.

Nessa grinned. “Yes!”

“But,” Aster stressed, “Stella gets half the rewards from whatever battle she helps you win. Half the mana, half the monster corpses, half the resources. No matter how much Stella helps, as long as we intercede, we get half.”

“Yeah, half!” Stella agreed, nodding along.

Nessa wrinkled her nose. “Why should you get half? No matter how much you help?”

“First off, we have the upper hand right now. Or do you not want your monsters healed?” Aster asked.

Nessa frowned.

“Second, yes, we get an incentive for helping you, but only if you win. Isn’t that better than us getting a flat incentive? This way, we’re strongly encouraged to fight hard enough for you to win,” Aster pointed out.

“Oh,” Nessa said, her eyes sparkling.

Aster shook his head. All these dungeons really need some guidance! They’re just running around without any education, not even basic math! Maybe I should start a Dungeon Spirit school…

“So? Will you take my pact? You can’t attack me anymore, or steal my people or resources, and you can’t be mean to me or my friends!” Stella said, holding out her hands. The blue crystal seal rotated slowly in her palms.

Nessa snapped her fingers. Black nails shone in the low light. A black, twisted pattern hung over her hand. “If you accept mine. I admit that I lost this battle. You have to heal my monsters, and help me if I’m in danger. If you help, you get half the loot. Agreed?”

Aster smiled slightly to himself, suppressing a chuckle. Black nails, black hair, black dress, black pact… someone’s going through their goth phase.

“Agreed,” Stella said.

Stella threw her hands out, and Nessa waved her hand. The pacts landed on the opposite girl. A black mark appeared on Stella’s shoulder for a moment before fading. On Nessa’s shoulder, a bright blue mark glowed faintly in the dungeon’s darkness.

“It’ll glow until she leaves,” Stella stage-whispered to Aster.

Green mana whirled around Nessa’s body. It poured out and swirled around Stella’s body. Aster ran forward, startled. “Stella!”

“Huh?” Stella asked, looking at her hands. The green mana faded to blue, and absorbed into her chest. She rubbed her chest, frowning slightly.

“What are you getting all worried for? That’s what happens when you win. You get my mana,” Nessa said, frowning at them.

“Oh. Oh!” Stella patted her chest, excited.

Aster put a hand on her shoulder. Leaning in, he hissed, “Don’t bring it out here.” I don’t fully trust Nessa. I don’t know if all Dungeon Spirits carry their cores around with them, but I don’t want Nessa to know that Stella has hers right there. It might incite Nessa to try attacking again.

“Huh? Okay,” Stella said, a little confused. She hugged herself, wiggling back and forth in place.